The Cure’s sixth studio album, 1985’s The Head on the Door, saw the band introducing a new pop sensibility to the mopey goth rock of earlier releases.
Sparked by successful lead-off single ‘In Between Days,’ the album gave the English band its first foothold in the U.S. and led to a run of platinum-selling albums in the late 80s and early 90s.
This year’s batch of new inductees into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is varied and interesting enough to warrant a series of blog posts. In fact, looking back at the lineups from the past several years, I’m kicking myself for not doing this before now. Maybe I’ll start a new series and work backward.
Alphabetically, the first new inductee is The Cure. The English New Wave band has been eligible since 2004 and was nominated once before (in 2012) before making the cut this year. They released 13 studio albums in the 30 years from 1979 to 2008 and gave voice to a generation of disaffected mopers.
The Cure is one of those quintessential 80s bands that helped define the New Wave era, particularly in the mid to late part of the decade. They started their career in the late 70s in a gloomy goth mode that persisted — at least in the band’s appearance — even after they were writing far poppier material.
I’m familiar only with a few of The Cure’s hits, and I like those a lot. Whether that appreciation would carry over to a whole album is anybody’s guess.
The Cure’s Pornography didn’t show up on many top ten lists back in 1982, but the album has developed a following in the ensuing years, and it does show up on quite a few retrospective lists chronicling that year.
It’s always interesting to see films, albums or novels get ripped upon release only to become classics decades later. Some works of art are either ahead of their time or require time to sink in.
I’ve completely missed the boat on The Cure, for better or worse. I know almost nothing about them apart from front-man Robert Smith’s resemblance to Edward Scissorhands and a passing familiarity with a few of their most popular songs.
I certainly had no idea that the band had released 15 studio albums dating back to 1979. In fact, 1987’s Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me — the successful album that featured today’s Song of the Day — was The Cure’s ninth release. I didn’t exactly consider them a one-hit wonder but no way did I imagine they had that kind of longevity.
Meet Me In Montauk 