The Cure: not just for girls anymore

If you had asked me any time between '88 and '92 if I liked The Cure, I probably would have considered it an insult.

The Cure were an identity band.The most popular gothic act ever, they were a lifestyle for suburban kids who thought life was unbearable. You could pick a Cure fan from his or her wardrobe -- black clothes, black nail polish... some were even brave enough to do the white makeup. These were not kids on a fast-track to popularity. For blue collar kids like me, it was not an easy act to identify with.

In those days (I was in high school at the time), I wasn't into mainstream music. I was discovering hip hop and metal. I loved Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions and Run DMC, Metallica, Slayer and Prong.  When Disintegration came out in '89, and the singles climbed the charts in '90, I was learning to love Smashing Pumpkins, Jane's Addiction, Fishbone and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I liked it all, but by all, I mean all music with an edge. The Cure were mopey, sentimental and throughly a rock band for girls, as far as my high school sensibilities were concerned.

But like other music obsessed kids of that era, I watched a lot of MTV (yes, kids, MTV used to have nothing but music videos). In fact MTV introduced me to a lot of music for the first time, music that you would never hear on the radio. The Cure were an MTV staple that fit that definition. Unlike a lot of their Brit alt rock peers -- Public Image Limitied, Siousxie and the Banshees, The Smiths, etc. -- The Cure seemed to translate better to American audiences and their songs were played more regularly outside of the 120 Minutes ghetto. "Why Can't I Be You" and "Just Like Heaven" from Kiss Me, Miss Me, Kiss Me got regular play. The singles from Disintegration, while not as poppy, were inescapable. And they were irresistible. At home, if no one was watching me, I wouldn't switch channels when videos for "Fascination Street," "Love Song," or "Pieces of You" came on.

Listening to Disintegration again, which was just reissued in a 3-disc deluxe edition, is like a virtual time warp. After the keyboard-heavy opener, "Plainsong," Robert Smith (I'm guessing here) runs his hand through some small chimes and the swirling guitars of "Pieces of You" bring me right back to high school. The album's sound -- the bubbly keys, the glassy guitars and those flat, dull drums -- sound just like the late '80s. The sound is not dated in the sense that it sounds antique, though. It is evocative of a time and place in music in which bands like The Cure were paving the road to alt and indie rock by making big inroads into the mainstream.



But also interesting is to hear the album in a fresh context, 20 years later. The Cure were never a band I'd call a "juggernaut,"  but they were big. These songs did a great deal to influence a lot of music that came after it. Smith's mopey shoe-gazing performance would become an early grunge staple of bands from Dinosaur Jr. to Nirvana. And while a lot of later so-called post-punk revivalist bands, from Interpol to The Editors, have a lot more in common aesthetically with The Cure than Joy Division. And a whole lot of emo comes from an unholy alliance of The Cure and Nine Inch Nails influences. (For this, we shouldn't really blame the Cure or Trent Reznor).

Most interesting of all, though, is the familiarity of those singles. They are genuine classics. For a mopey, goth-y band, The Cure enjoyed success in the states that a lot of other bands would have killed for. "Lovesong" actually reached #2 on the Hot 100. It would be the only top 10 hit the band would score in the U.S., but it was enough to cement the band as a rock staple here. Why? The songs are just great songs. Like other alt or modern rock acts in the '80s, R.E.M., U2, the cure prepared us for exciting rock to come with songs that were challenging but still melodic enough, familiar enough, to make it on the radio. The Cure, like U2 and R.E.M., would contribute to modern rock in the '90s with Wish, another popular record that charted several modern rock singles, particularly "Friday I'm in Love."

The new 3-disc reissue is probably more than anyone but the most devoted Cure fan should own. Disc 2 is a bunch of instrumental and vocal tracks from the recording. Disc 3 is a live performance of the album in its entirety. These are neat things to have, sure, but not necessities.  Disintegration is a great album. It's a single, coherent statement. It's Smith at his absolute best -- focused and really quite brilliant.  It's an album every real rock fan should own. Even if you thought the band was just for girls in high school.

Postscript
Not long after I wrote this, I realized a few things.

1) Take away the walls of distortion, and Billy Corgn and Smashing Pumpkins are direct descendants of the Cure. Corgan even tried to look like Smith during the Adore tour. Of course, hair would have helped.

2) It's now slightly more apparent to me why I barely dated in high school.