History Lesson: The Cure

The Cure

Original video located here. Accessed 10th March 2019

It’s a funny thing with my life: Everything happens in groups of four. I have good years (1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008) and I have bad years (1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006). I have also been through phases, starting with each ‘bad’ year and reaching its pinnacle on a ’good’ year. Thus over the years I have been a Games Workshop geek (1994-1997), a Goth (1998-2001), an anime nerd (2002-2005) and a gamer (2006-present). Now that I think of it, I wonder what’s going to happen in 2010...?

Anyway, 1998-2001 was something of as Goth phase for me. It wasn’t in appearance though, it was more in spirit. I felt like a misfit to the rest of the world, I resented people who followed a crowd and I fell in with a group of people who felt the same way (ie Us vs Them). And then came the Cure. In theory this was another band who have since been recognised as essential listen for grumpy teenagers. Whilst I get the most out the material they were doing in the early eighties, what drew me to the Cure was they ability to craft winning pop songs. Now their chaotic/dark material was enjoyable for being representative of my anger towards the rest of the world (at the time), I was still fascinated by the way the Cure could come up with a simple hook and build the rest of the song around it. Also pleasing was the use of chiming guitars, the constant push of the bass up to the front and the keyboards providing plenty of colours throughout. Thus it should come to no surprise that my favourite song EVER is Friday I’m in Love (why? Because it makes me smile). Indeed, when Robert Smith puts his mind to it, he can pull out a winner of a pop song.

Key album: Disintegration (1989) Although I love the Cure for their pop sensibilities, there is no denying they got where they are through the gloom. The quintessential Cure album that represents a decade of musical experimentation, there are also moments of sheer beauty in Disintegration. In particular there’s the opener Plainsong which I liken to standing in front of a giant glacier and watching it melt. For a long time this was, in a triumph of atmospherics, my favourite album to listen to on a rainy day.