The Cure

The Cure's 1980 American debut collects tracks from their 1979 British LP, Three Imaginary Boys, alongside early singles such as "Jumping Someone Else's Train." It's a great collection that captures the band's early jumpy, Post-Punk sound and worth owning simply for "Killing An Arab" and "10:15 Saturday Night."

In the spectrum of self-conscious postpunk British bands, the Cure fall squarely between
Wire's sophisticated, jagged architectonics and the Undertones' concise, wide-eyed pop
music. They incorporate a little of each. I guess this means that these guys average out at
the college-sophomore level, which is appropriate, since their first English single (the
desert-spare "Killing an Arab") was based on an Albert Camus novel. The Strange... More >

The sound is dry postpunk, with touches of Wire's spare, arty melodicism, more Pink Flag than 154. Never pretty, it's treated with a properly mnemonic pop overlay--scan the titles and you'll recall a phrase from all but a few of these thirteen songs. Intelligent phrases they are, too. Yet what are we to think of a band whose best song is based on Albert Camus's The Stranger, a book that was holy writ for collegiate existentialists before Robert Smith was even born? The last thing we need is collegiate existentialism nostalgia. (Grade - B+)