C'mon, show your love.


I've always been a "semi-fan" of the Cure. I've owned Galore for years, and play it sporadically. I picked up Disintegration, but it never grew on me; same story for their latest disc.

Picked up Head on the Door this December on a whim, and I am so glad that I did. I love every single song on this album, even stuff like "Screw", which seems to be disliked for some reason.

Anyway, I know there are a group of Cure fans here on the Org. I was wondering where you all ranked this album in their catalog, if anybody had any interesting stories to tell about the CD, or just wanted to discuss why you love it/hate it.

i loooove this album. it kinda compares to '1999' to me...it's the album just before the cure became 'fully realized' and got their first really big helping of mainstream recognition (being states-centric here, of course), and 'head on the door' foresaw the direction their next album would take. having the greatest hits comp arrive right between 'head on the door' and 'kiss me kiss me kiss me' was a brilliant palette cleanser - what a great time to be into the cure...luckily for me, it was right about when i was starting to dive into their music.

I bought this album back in high school almost 20 years ago. It was my first and favorite Cure album.

I love it to pieces. I'd rank it in my top 5 for sure. It seems like a greatest hits really - all the songs are so strong, including the b-sides. This is the album that came out right before I got into them so I missed out on it when it was new. But it felt like an old friend once I did pick it up. "Inbetween Days", "Close To Me" and "A Night Like This" are all classic, classic singles. "Push", "Six Different Ways" and "Kyoto Song" all seem like they should've been. There's a true joy on this record hinted at by some of the Japanese Whispers singles. I feel like this record, possibly more than any other, strikes the perfect balance between all that they're capable of - moody, mysterious alternative: "Sinking", funky dance songs: "Screw" and "Close To Me" and whimsical grandeur: "Inbetween Days" and "Push". This is where they fully intergrated all their wonderfully idiosynchratic elements into one delicious whole. Perhaps the only other times we've seen The Cure this diverse are on "Kiss Me" and the new one. People that see The Cure as only miserable and gothic, I challenge you to pick up this album. If you don't like it, you probably won't like The Cure. It's definitive.

GangstaFam said:

You should make one of those questionnaire threads for them:
* ¤ * T H E C U R E * ¤ *

How many responses do you think it would get?

Brings back so many memories. I have to listen to it now.

Listening to The Blood right now. Love that Spanish guitar.
[Edited 2/18/05 8:47am]

GangstaFam said:

Hehehe. This was one of my sister's albums, before she moved out and I got it; it was in my room always anyways, together with her Eurythmics Touch album.

I know Seventeen Seconds too, but somehow I needed to be older to appreaciate that one.

I love this album because it makes me happy. Makes me remember my mother's attic, where my sister's slept; Doe Maar, The Police, U2 and The Cure posters littering the walls.

Both my sisters and my brother played music all of the time.... this is a band that stuck with me since now. I'll never grow up, I'm afraid.

minneapolisgenius said:

I remember my art teacher in high school played the album in class and "The Blood" immediately stood out for me. I bought the album for that song and "Close To Me". I thought initially that the album was a little too strange for me overall (keep in mind that in high school, I was very into stuff like Prince, Jesse Johnson and Full Force), but grew to eventually love the entire record.

sextonseven said:

First off, Prince isn't strange?

And how awesome of an art teacher is that!? High school might've actually been enjoyable if I got to listen to the Cure IN CLASS.

sextonseven said:

I will. How do you make those funky ¤ symbols.

sextonseven said:

I've always loved those two the most off the album. That and "Sinking". I remember a few years back, after not having listened to the album for years, I thought, "Damn. This is a really weird album I have to admit." I guess I never really noticed how different it was back when i was playing it every day.

And how about A Few Hours After This? That song is an absolute favorite. No other song makes me feel that way.

New Day, A Man Inside My Mouth and The Exploding Boy are all tops too.

I can't wait for that remaster.

GangstaFam said:

I think it was Smith's voice that I found weird--very different from all the Janet Jackson and Madonna records that I had at the time, LOL.

My art teacher was very cool. He also played 'Catching Up With Depeche Mode' in class and after hearing "Flexible", I had to get that album too. My friends thought I was crazy.

GangstaFam said:

Soon after buying the LP, I bought the "Quadpus" EP for the extended version of "Close To Me" and heard some of those b-sides. If I thought 'The Head On The Door' was a little weird at first, can you imagine what I thought when I first listened to "New Day"?

I bought this album like, this month.

one of their best albums, no question. i can't wait for the remaster!

Sinking has to be my favorite track... that bassline. Although the studio version doesn't really capture the way it thunders in your head when played live. What a great song.


But no weak tracks... and super-tight b-sides, as well. The Exploding Boy. Few Hours After This. Stop Dead. Man Inside My Mouth. All great!!!!!


New Day - correct me if I'm wrong - is actually a much earlier recording, from around the time of The Glove, so I kinda exclude it from the Head on the Door period, even though it was released as a b-side during that era. Wasn't it a Smith/Severin collaboration? It seems to be more a part of "The Top" period, in my mind.

Sigh... love The Cure

If I absolutely had to name one, just one, this is probably my favorite Cure album. At turns oh so light and oh so heavy. Melodic, happy and dark. The first Cure album I owned was Disintegration (I think I was in 8th grade when it came out), but once I turned back to seek out more more more this became a quick favorite. It also contains my all time favorite Cure song, 6 Different Ways.

Anyway, since I've been in this Cure mood, I thought I'd let y'all know that I picked up the remaster of Three Imaginary Boys today, and am going to give Disintegration another chance tonight.

sextonseven said:

I would've been in absolute heaven.

JonSnow said:

It's definitely deranged enough to be from The Top. The vocals are just like that album. Remember the Beavis & Butthead episode when they were making fun of "The Caterpillar" video? I would love to see what they'd do with "New Day".

CarrieMpls said:

What a song! It so should've been the 4th single. That album was successful enough to have another. The strings, the fun synth lines, the melody, the way he sings "It's that American voice again" - gorgeous. Definitely one of the happiest songs ever.

"When you screw up your arms..."

When you screw up your face..."

"When you throw out your arms...."

"And keep changing your shape....."

The thing I like about this album is its diversity. Every song on it is different from the others:

In Between Days - the pop song

Kyoto Song - the oriental song

The Blood - The flamenco song

Six Different Ways - the fantasy song

Push - the mainstream/hard rock song

Close To Me - the dance song

A Night Like This - the stadium rock song

Screw - the electro-funk song

Sinking - the psychedelic song that predates what they would later do on "Disintergration".

NWF said:

"Screw" was the third song from the album I immediately liked. The others all took a while to grow on me. I didn't really appreciate and listen to the album as a whole until college.

Not to jack my own thread, but I gotta say that I just listened to 'Three Imaginary Boys', and I totally didn't get it. Maybe it'll take a few more listens to grow on me or something. Doesn't even sound like the same band. I'm kinda disappointed, because I really like the post-punk sound.

Yum, yum, YUM!

Fabulous album.

This was actually the first Cure album I ever heard. My older sister had a dubbed casette of it that I stole in 9th grade or sumptin. GOOD STUFF!

endorphin74 said:

We both have cool sisters!

HamsterHuey said:

well, mine WAS cool. Coolness was definately a teenage phase for her

endorphin74 said:

LoL
Mine still is.

I want a cool older sister.
[Edited 2/19/05 6:43am]