Title: The Cure
By Menome
This is the veteran goths umpteenth album, and after a reasonable re-surge in popularity in the past year or two, have they still got what it takes to make a good album?
First single from the album 'The End Of The World' treads familiar territory, with jangly guitars and Robert Smith's tortured voice on a song about the break-up of a relationship and maintains the standards of producing accessible gothic music which they've set over the years.
Other, more sparse and distraught songs show off The Cure's ability to also appeal to those looking for a less poppy sound, with tracks such as opener 'Lost' with Robert's scratching vocals over a basic backing track, or 'Labyrinth' which sounds like The Sisters Of Mercy during the "Reptile House" EP era.
Heavier and more emotional tracks come by way of 'Us Or Them' and 'Anniversary', but don't go expecting some sort of Slipknot style frenzy, it's still the classic sound of 80's goth which abounds.
The album gives a good variation of the slow and upbeat songs, (unlike the Keane album reviewed elsewhere) and is enjoyable to listen to, despite coming from a 30-ish year old band and puts many of the modern-day 'gothic' acts, such as The Rasmus, to shame. It manages to appeal to more than just teenage depressives and 12-year olds, and avoids going with the grain of today's acts who are trying to be more and more flamboyant and shocking. The Cure just do it their way, and that's the way it should be.
However, despite all of the plus points noted above, the album never reaches the giddy heights of such classics as 'Love Cats' or (Car Advert Song) and compared to earlier albums, doesn't stand out as much as they do. That's not to say this a bad album, far from it, but in a year or so, given a choice of this album or the classics, most people are going to take that step back in time and mostly forget this album existed, which is a shame as it deserves more recognition than it's going to get.
And I never thought I'd use the word 'goth' so much in one album review. As usual, send comments and review suggestions to:
And send all your money to Conor.
Picture from www.thecure.com