It's Raining Again

M  S

1  5  Three Imaginary Boys(1979):The Quintessential post-punk pop album, hinting
(Another Day, Three Imaginary Boys) not only at the direction the band would
take, but also (So What, Foxy Lady, Boy's Don't Cry) at
several they wouldn't.

3  1  Seventeen Seconds(1980):Robert's vision begins to implode-he still calls
Seventeen Seconds a catchy album, but lyrically, the rancor was beginning to surface.

5  0  Faith/Carnage Visors(1981):The perfect Cure album, a cathedral of
dark sound which crystallized not only the band's internal
despair---they were still selling no more than 50,000 albums
worldwide--but also the post punk scene's own Gothic turn. Ian Curtis
had just died, and Robert knew the press wanted him to replace the Joy
Division singer. Carnage Visors is an album length instrumental movie
soundtrack appended to cassette versions of Faith.

9  -9 Pornography(1982):They reached the depths, then kept going. Faith
was the perfect Cure album, Pornography was the ultimate, the sound of a
band tearing itself to pieces and taking everybody with them. And
Siamese Twins is the wedding march of the early 1980's. "I chose an
eternity of this."

1  2  Japanese Whispers(1983):A stop-gap collection of recent singles and
b-sides.

1  1  The Top(1984):Bouncing back from a string of hit singles, the Cure's first
vaguely unsatisfying album, as Robert's new found English eccentric persona got
the better of his lyrical abilities. Bananfishbones indeed.

1  2  Concert/Curiosity(1984):The band's first live album, padded on cassette
with a collection of live and demo rarities.

2  4  The Head on the Door(1985):A return to form, with A Night Like This quite
unexpectedly amongst Smith's greatest compositions ever. Close to Me, regarded
without it's over-seen video, and The Blood come close

5  5  Standing on a Beach: The Singles(1986):A career length collection
of hit and miss singles, backed on cassette by the relevant
b-sides, Possibly the greatest album the Cure will ever release, with
everything you'd want to play more than once in mixed company.

1  1  Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me(1987):No,no,no. Too long, too cliched, two record set
which caught Smith's hitherto concise vision spinning out at a dozen different
directions at once, paving the way for the instability to come.

4  3  Disintegration(1989):Love Song and Lullaby were the ideal introductions
into this dark, often symphonic reminder of the Cure BLC (Before Love
Cats).Overall, probably the best regular Cure album since Pornography, and their
US breakthrough to boot. Who says Americans have no taste? 

+  1  Mixed Up(1990):A redundant collection of redundant remixes which
never the less sounded great on the dance floor. Pity no one lives in a
disco, isn't it?

3  2  Entreat(1991):Essentially a live version of Disintegration, minus
the biggest hits, but with plenty of room for Homesick and Untitled to
spread out. The overall mood is similar to live tapes from the faith
era, marred only by an overly joyous audience.

0  0  Wish(1992):First impressions(Friday I'm in Love, Wendytime, Doing the
Unstuck) were of a Right Said Fred album mispressed to include one great Cure
song(From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea).Second impressions recanted, as they
forgot I'm Too Sexy.

0  3  Show(1993):Another live album, concentrating on the poppy bits of the Wish
tour.

3  0  Paris(1993):Ditto. But concentrating on the miserable parts this time.

1  1  Lost Wishes(1994):Outtakes from Wish. Now say that without flinching.