The Cure’s Albums, Ranked
The Cure has established one of the most iconic and influential catalogs of music in the annals of alternative, goth, and post-punk.
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The Cure is my favorite band. And not just because they formed in Crawley, West Sussex the same year I was born. I discovered their music during the tumultuous, angst-ridden years of high school — scientifically proven to be the best time to discover The Cure — and it has stayed with me, more than three decades after the fact. But even after all that time, I still struggle to fully explain why The Cure’s music means so much, though I suspect that the reasons I can highlight will be familiar to many other fans.
For all of its obvious darkness, melancholy, and occasional nihilism — or perhaps more accurately, because of those very things — The Cure’s music can be a comforting soundtrack for difficult times: death, broken relationships, unrequited love, and yes, even high school. Robert Smith’s florid and colorful lyrics express the deepest emotions in unique ways, making it possible for listeners to understand and express those emotions in their own lives.
The band’s richly layered and exotic soundscapes offer an escape into fantastical and dream-like other-worlds. And finally, the band’s permanent outsider status — which they’ve maintained even while selling out stadiums, amphitheaters, and other venues around the world — make it easier to feel a little less alone in a world that’s often too big and too scary, even for middle-aged adults.
Nine Inch Nails’s Trent Reznor said it best when he inducted The Cure into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame:
Immediately this band struck a chord. The first album I heard was The Head on the Door. I hadn’t heard anything like it before. I felt a lot of the darkness that I felt in my head coming back at me through the speakers, and it blew my mind. It was like this music was written just for me. I struggled my whole life feeling that I don’t fit in or belong anywhere…Hearing this, suddenly I felt connected, no longer quite so alone.
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Despite making challenging music that deals with the biggest themes, their impact has been gigantic. They’ve sold the best part of who gives a shit how many million records and been an essential touchstone in the genres of post-punk, New Wave, goth, alternative, shoegaze, and post-rock. They’ve been in and out of fashion so many times in the last four decades that they ended up transcending fashion itself. Though they might be a hip name to drop in 2019, this wasn’t always the case. Their dedication to pushing sonic and artistic boundaries while making music for the ages wasn’t always rewarded with glowing reviews in the press. But they never failed to attract a passionate, intelligent, and loyal fanbase who always knew the truth: The Cure are one of the most unique, most brilliant, most heartbreakingly excellent rock bands the world has ever known.
He then went on to describe The Cure’s music as “a sound, it’s a look, it’s a vibe, it’s an aesthetic that the fans get to visit and immerse themselves in whenever they like. It’s a custom world for anyone who has ever dreamed of escape.”
Over the course of 13 albums, as well as numerous singles and compilations, The Cure has established one of the most iconic and influential catalogs of music in the annals of alternative, goth, and post-punk. Their songs can be beautiful, ominous, heart-breaking, and harrowing — and sometimes, all at once. So to celebrate the impending release of their fourteenth album, the long-awaited Songs of a Lost World, I’ve been reacquainting myself with their discography, and trying to figure out where each album stands.
Of course, the following ranking is completely subjective, based on my own experiences with The Cure and how their music has impacted and shaped my life over the course of 30+ years. Your ranking might look totally different than mine, which is a beautiful thing, and ultimately speaks to the diversity and range found in their music.