The Cure - The Cure

The Cure

The Cure
Geffen Records.

SCQ Rating: 78%

In 1989, The Cure were at the summit of their popularity. Riding the wave from their most popular hit yet (‘Just Like Heaven’), Mr. Smith and the boys released Disintegration, a record that would later be considered their masterpiece, then set out on their most expansive tour ever. At the close of the decade, The Cure were what most people would call untouchable. Then the 90s happened and nobody talked about The Cure at all anymore.

Two disappointing records, a careless remix project and a live album later, 39 year old Robert Smith prepared to close the book on his band (again…) with the trilogy-closing Bloodflowers. Its release in the Spring of 2000 stirred lackluster press attention but those who listened in were hearing the sound of a band refocused (from the experimental failure which was Wild Mood Swings) and a visionary career entering its third renaissance.

The Cure, their self-titled twelfth album, is a document of this rebirth and presents us with the reinvigorated emotion of the five-strong band. Better yet, while all the hottest bands in 2004 were praising and exploiting the Cure’s guitar tones and 80s synth-work, The Cure is utterly devoid of that classic sound that pioneered them into stardom, instead preferring to write a darkly seductive rock record. They chose wisely, as opening gloom-alarm ‘Lost’ is impassably heavy, and even four years on, these trend-denying songs sound more timely than anything the Killers wrote. Although The Cure holds a predominant sense of doom, ‘Before Three’ and the unsuspecting ‘The End of the World’ are upbeat pop songs, replete with Smith’s romantic lyrics and searing vocals.

Despite my praising, this is not one of the Cure’s best albums; it’s a well-timed effort to coincide with their growing popularity among a younger generation, which is successful in appealing to a new audience without abandoning their principles. ‘Alt. End’, like many of the songs here, are typical alternative rock songs that are made notable through their performance. After all, let’s give credit where credit is due: this is the Cure, and we haven’t heard them this hungry since Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me. There’s a confidence on display here that overshadows the few predictable songs here, and after a decade on top and another on the brink of quitting, that confidence is well-earned.