The Cure: Show Me How You Do That Trick

The Cure’s very first single, “Killing an Arab,” from 1979, sounds almost nothing like the florid danceable hits that they would make their bones on in the 1980s and 1990s. It's skeletal, consisting of nothing more than a skittering guitar, bass and drums. “Boys Don’t Cry,” the second single, boasted similar instrumentation, but was a big leap forward in terms of melody and riffage.

Somebody just getting into the Cure around the time of Disintegration or "Friday I’m in Love" would probably not recognize these as songs from the same band, aside from the distinctive yawp of Robert Smith. A lot of bands make that kind of progression, of course, from raw to overproduced, but what’s great about the Cure is that those early singles are as great as the later hits. All the melodicism and atmosphere and weirdness and distinctive yawp were already present.

The Cure didn’t do anything in America until “Let’s Go To Bed” got some MTV airplay in 1982, although it didn’t do more than bubble under on the Hot 100. But it took until Kiss me Kiss Me Kiss Me, in 1986 (the first CD I ever bought, by the way), for them to have a Top Forty album, and for “Just Like Heaven” to make the Top Forty – just barely sneaking in at Number Forty, but at least Casey Kasem announced it once. "Why Can't I Be You" and "Hot Hot Hot!" were almost as good.

They finally had a genuine hit with “Lovesong,” a relatively weak number off Disintegration that went to Number Two in 1989. (I saw the Cure on that tour and remember how that was the song everyone sat down for.) Disintegration's first single, “Fascination Street,” with its lascivious bass intro, topped only the Modern Rock charts, but in the end the album was as jampacked with hit-worthy material as Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me had been. 

“Friday I’m in Love” was their last Top Forty hit, in 1992. Generally, I place a lot of stock in how many hits a band has had, but so many of these Cure songs have entered the realm of classic rock – and what we now think of as, oxymoronically enough, alternative classic rock – that I’m going to cut them some slack. “Friday I’m in Love” became sort of the theme song for MTV’s 120 Minutes. Plus, they’re really good.

I also love that the Cure put out “In Between Days,” a nicely melodic dance track from 1985 which was a modest hit, then decided they could do better than that, so they rewrote it as “Just Like Heaven,” putting that steam-powered (and incredibly lengthy) guitar riff on the front of it, and got a Top Forty hit out of it. Plus, the best dance song of the Eighties.

The Matched Set The Kinks started out as a proto-punk band, evolved into a chamber-pop kind of thing, then emerged in the Seventies and Eighties as an arena rock band. Each sound was perfectly suited to its times, and was pulled off perfectly by the band. Is it blasphemous for me to compare a revered classic band with a bunch of New Wave twerps in face powder? I don’t know, but I’d rather listen to the Cure.

The Verdict The Cure has been a trailblazing band in New Wave and Eighties dance music, and their stuff has held up very well, based as it has always been in such strong songwriting. They are the archetype of what became known as alternative rock. They’re a real band, too, with guitar solos and everything. What’s not to like? I vote Yes for the Cure.