The Cure - Inbetween Days Album: The Head on the Door [1985]
out of all the bands that emerged in the immediate aftermath of punk rock in the late '70s, few were as enduring and popular as the cure. Led through numerous incarnations by guitarist/vocalist robert smith, the band became notorious for its slow, gloomy dirges and smith's ghoulish appearance, a public image that often hid the diversity of the cure's music. at the outset, the cure played jagged, edgy pop songs before slowly evolving into a more textured outfit. As one of the bands that laid the seeds for goth rock, the group created towering layers of guitars and synthesizers, but by the time goth caught on in the mid-'80s, the cure had moved away from the genre. By the end of the '80s, the band had crossed over into the mainstream not only in its native england, but also in the united states and in various parts of europe. after recording one of their darkest albums, 1984's "the top", the cure regrouped and shuffled their lineup, which changed their musical direction rather radically. while the band always had a pop element in their sound, "the head on the door" is where they become a hitmaking machine. the shiny, sleek production and laser-sharp melodies of "inbetween days" and "close to me" helped them become modern rock radio staples and the inspired videos had them in heavy rotation on MTV. with this album, smith figured out how to make gloom and doom danceable and popular to both alternative and mainstream rock audiences. it was a feat the band managed to pull off for many years afterward, but never as concisely or as impressively as they did here.
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