Goddamn, I love The Cure Pt. 2

1987 - Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me:  First off, I have to say.  Just Like Heaven  is one of my all time favorite songs.  Ever.  This record  marks a further departure from The Cure's moody, gothic rock beginnings.  The record is light, even fun at times.  Their are acoustic guitars, string arrangements, and pleasant singing.  I bought this record in eighth grade.  I listened to it endlessly that summer, it's songs of longing, and lost love, a perfect soundtrack to late night skateboarding and long talks.
Far and above, my fondest memory of this record is listening to it the winter I shared a room with someone I love dearly, in a busted, cold, fucked up punk house.  We moved the bed into the closet to have more creative space in the room, though it ended up being so cold that we didn't spend much time in there anyway.  There was a cheap boombox in the corner of the room, this CD was often put in at night, when it was time to go to sleep.  We would start at If Only Tonight We Could Sleep, joking about how cold it was, and curl up under at least three blankets for warmth, and fall asleep, often as the sun was coming up.  It wasn't always an easy time, or pretty, but it was definitely full of inspiration, and something I look back so warmly on now. 

1989 - Disintegration:  This record marks a return to the darker, less poppy Cure sound.  Some of the guitar melodies are moody enough, that they are reminiscent of 1982's Pornography and at the same time a hint of what would come with 1992's Wish.  This record is great.  It's dark and moody, but in a more grown up way.  It's like looking back at your life as a complete picture, some regrets, some amazing bits, some funny, awkward parts, and a realization that you can never go home again.  Sometimes maybe, but definitely not this time.  It's a soundtrack for lost youth, which was bizarre to hear and identify with at fourteen.  It makes much more sense at 30. Get this record, and listen to how heavy track 11 Homesick is without using any sort of distortion, or traditional heaviness.  It's all in the atmosphere.  You can literally hear the regret in Robert Smith's voice "My eyes are bursting hearts, in a bloodstained sky." 

1992 - Wish:  I will almost guarantee you that nearly any angst ridden teenager from the year this record was released to at least 1996 or 1997 owned this record.  Whatever year Nu-Metal reared it's abominable, neanderthal-esque, head as the standard for angsty kids, is probably when they stopped buying this record and crying in their bedrooms in the dark to it en masse.  Not to sound crotchety, but they have no idea what they are missing.  Holy shit...  This record, this record.  When I was fourteen I couldn't listen to track 3 Apart without bursting into tears.  I just could not do it.  If I was listening to the album the whole way through, and this song came on, I would literally jump up to skip the song.  Robert Smith's moody, soaring guitar riffs are perfected in this record.  Listen to track 9 A Letter To Elise for proof.  Like Pornography before it, there is hardly a song out of place on it.  I would only argue that track 5 Wendy Time is a little off, but someone with a better ear for album completeness might disagree.  You owe it to yourself to listen to this record.  Seriously.  If for nothing else, than the humor value of yours truly, listening to it and trying to write bad poetry that mimicked Robert Smith's lyrical styling, or me and my best friend at the time lying in bed together, confiding in each other about girls, but trying to work up the nerve to give each other handjobs.  I don't mean that to sound as depressing as it does, but being a queer in a small town sucked.  I recently heard that another childhood friend, that I've long lost touch with; named his newborn daughter Elise, after the aforementioned song Letter To Elise.

Alright, that's it.  Thank you for following me down this self indulgent trip down memory lane.  You may notice I didn't include The Cure's later albums.  I omitted them simply because I'm not as familiar with them.  I barely know 1996's Wild Mood Swings, and listened to 2000's Bloodflowers enough to think that it was pretty okay, all Cure records since then are virtually unknown to me.  I covered these records, because they helped define who I am, kept me company through some of the bleakest nights, and I just think they are wonderful records.