Posted in: Rock by Mark J Palazzo on November 15th, 2008 | 0 Comments
A brief overview of one of the biggest bands of the late 80s, The Cure, and whether it’s ok to still like them.
There was a time when The Cure was one of the biggest bands in the world. It was a long time ago. Albums like Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me and its follow-up Disintegration in the late 80’s were HUGE. You couldn’t walk down the street without seeing someone wearing a Cure t-shirt, or turn on the radio without hearing Robert Smith singing his heart out on songs like “Just Like Heaven”, “Fascination Street”, or “Pictures of You”, and you certainly couldn’t put on MTV without seeing the Goth-looking Smith and his strange and gloomy-looking buddies behaving oddly in one of their many videos. Those were the days. And that massive success was, in my opinion, well deserved. They didn’t get big because of their image, they got big despite it. They got big because Robert Smith wrote a lot of great songs and also created a sound which was quite unlike anything else.
4:13 Dream is the name of the new album by The Cure, and it is exactly what you’d expect it to be. That’s either a positive or a negative, depending on your viewpoint. I was one of those many t-shirt wearing Cure fans back in the day, and I am a big believer in loyalty, and I have continued to try to support them whenever they release a new album. I have to confess, the last one that really excited me was Wish back in 1992. That’s the way life goes sometimes. It’s clear that Robert Smith is going to continue to do what he does best and write the same kinds of songs he’s always written. And it’s clear that The Cure will continue to sound like The Cure. Maybe that’s not the worst thing in the world or maybe it is. All I know is that when I put on their new CD for the first time, and the first song started playing, it felt good. It sounded good. Sometimes it’s kind of soothing to know that some things don’t have to change.
