I love these guys! Or more specifically, Robert Smith, who, for all intents and purposes, is the Cure. The Cure, for me, is all about emotion. Their ability to describe the highest highs and lowest lows, is almost unmatched, IMO.
They have had a huge revolving cast of musicians over the years, and the only (other than Smith) constant has been Gallup on bass (since his introduction, he’s only been missing from one album). With this ever-shifting line up, it’s almost like picturing Robert as a leader of a jazz band, recruiting the people he needs to get the sound he wants. I’ll admit, his singing does take some getting used too. Smith doesn’t so much sing as much as he emotes in tune. Smith himself is a darn good guitarist, and Gallup is incredible on bass. They’ve had other outstanding musicians through their career also, notably Boris Williams on drums through the late 80s and early 90s and Roger O’Donnell periodically on keyboards.
There’s not an album of theirs I don’t like, from the punk-like beginnings of “Three Imaginary Boys”, to the dark goth of “Pornography”, to the drastically shifting moods of the more accessible “Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me” and “Wish”, and even the rough sounding self-titled release of ’04 has some fantastic stuff on it. And their b-sides and soundtrack songs are frequently good enough to have made every album since ’89 a double album with no reduction in quality.
Contrary to popular belief, the Cure are not always about moping in the corner crying through their eyeliner. Even though some of their best stuff can be described that way, (“Disintegration” – which I’ll come back to) not only are they capable of expressing other emotions, they excel at it. Some of the most infectiously happy music I know comes from the Cure; songs like “Just Like Heaven”, “Friday, I’m In Love”, and “Mint Car” are almost impossible not to sing along with. They’re eminently capable of rocking out too, as tunes like “Wrong Number”, “Never Enough”, and “Burn” demonstrate.
Then there’s “Disintegration”. This album is quite simply, a masterpiece, and belongs in any conversation of “best albums of all time”. Never before or since, have I heard an album take one mood and sustain it through multiple variations, without becoming repetitious, through 70+ minutes, but that’s what they do here. It is an absolute study of loss, and the many ways in which it affects us. From the opening chimes of “Plainsong” through the fading drums on “Untitled” it is musical perfection.
Smith’s writing is quite unique in popular music, in that there are rarely rhythm and lead sections, rarely harmonies, and rarely a traditional verse-chorus-bridge structure. More often he weaves melodies that are in counterpoint to each other throughout each song. Each instrument will play a simple, catchy, melodic phrase, one which would be enough to sustain a typical song. But as each new instrument enters, they add their own melody, which fits harmonically with the initial one, but a unique melody in its own right.
Fascination Street gives a prime example of Smith’s style of song structure. The aggressive, forceful bass riff that is the song’s core opens the tune, and plays, almost without pause throughout the entire five minute song. What lends the song structure are the guitar, keyboard and vocal parts, each repeating its own self-contained melody, but entering and exiting throughout the song to generate an ever increasing level of tension.
The musicianship of the band is most evident, I think, on some of the quieter tunes, most notably Homesick, where the bass and piano duet that dominates the song is one the most beautiful pieces of music I’ve heard.
Lyrically, I think this is nothing short of brilliant. Take these, from the opener Plainsong:
Like I’m living at the edge of the world
Sometimes you make me feel like I’m living at the edge of the world
“It’s just the way I smile” you said
The coldness and detachment present in the girls’ response is heartbreaking, to me. The lyrics of the next few songs (Pictures Of You, Closedown and Lovesong) evoke a sense of loss, but one that is tinged with fond memories of the beauty present in those lost moments. There’s more of a feel of acceptance to the loss present in the lyrics of Last Dance, an acknowledgement that too much time has passed.
I’m so glad you came, I’m so glad you remembered
To see how we’re ending our last dance together
Reluctantly, cautiously but prettier than ever
I really believe that this time it’s forever
But Christmas falls late now
Flatter and colder and never as bright as when we used to fall
And even if we drink I don’t think we would kiss
In the way that we did
When the woman was only a girl
For the next several tracks the hurt and the anger alternate, culminating in the howling rant of the title track:
But it’s not the end, and the last two track, Homesick and Untitled provide a calm,I never said I would stay to the end
I knew I would leave you with babies and everything
Screaming like this in the hole of sincerity
Screaming me over and over and over
I leave you with photographs, pictures of trickery
Stains on the carpet and stains on the memory
Songs about happiness, murmured in dreams
When we, both of us, knew
How the end always is
reflective landing platform after the anguish, and a recognition that, though the scars have healed, the memory will always remain.
For me, this album is the ultimate catharsis. It's involving and draining to listen too, but by the end, I end up feeling almost reborn, as if feeling these emotions so deeply through the couse of the album draw them out of me, and leave me feeling rejuvinated.Hopelessly drift in the eyes of the ghost again
Down on my knees and my hands in the air again
Pushing my face in the memory of you again
But I never know if it’s real
Never know how I wanted to feel
Never quite said what I wanted to say to you
Never quite managed the words to explain to you
Never quite knew how to make them believable
And know the time is gone
Another time undone
So, all in all, I think these guys are a fantastic band, that is frequently, sadly overlooked. I know this was kinda long, so if you made it to the end, thanks for reading
, but it turned out that I had more to say than I originally thought.
Yeah, I'll take that label. The funny thing is, it took me a while to get into them. The first time I heard them was at a summer camp. One of the counselors had "Kiss Me" on cassette and played it non-stop. I 
) A few years on in college, though, I gave it another try (I was maybe 20) and that time it clicked. (Maybe I was beaten in submission by my then bandmates. 
)
