The Cure

Dubbed the "masters of mope rock," the Cure rose from Britain's late-'70s punk scene to become one of the biggest-selling "underground" acts of the '80s. Frontman Robert Smith, who has been described as the "messiah of melancholy" and the "guru of gloom," is known for wearing death-white facial makeup, crimson lipstick, and teased black hair; he is rivaled only by Morrissey as a heartthrob for the discontented. The Cure's goth-pop style is characterized by self-obsessed lyrics, minor-key melodies, and Smith's vexatious whine.

Robert Smith grew up in working-class Crawley, Sussex, a suburb of London. He recalls his childhood years as difficult, a time of run-ins with his parents and the law. At 17 he formed the Easy Cure with childhood friends Laurence Tolhurst and Michael Dempsey as a sort of catharsis for his feelings of frustration. The group’s music has remained therapeutic for Smith.

The Cure made its initial splash in the U.K. with the 1979 single “Killing an Arab,” which stirred controversy when it reappeared on the mid-’80s retrospective Standing on a Beach: The Singles. Some U.S. radio DJs used the song, which was inspired by Albert Camus’ The Stranger, to advance anti-Arab sentiments; the group included a disclaimer with subsequent pressings stating that the song “decries the existence of all prejudice and consequent violence.”

While the Cure toured in 1979 as the support act to Siouxsie and the Banshees, the headliner’s guitarist quit the band. Smith was recruited to fill in on the tour, beginning an active collaboration with the Banshees. He ultimately devoted much of 1983–84 as a full-time member of the band, recording both the live Nocturne and a studio album, Hyaena. In 1983, he also joined Banshees bassist Steve Severin for a side project called the Glove, releasing one album, Blue Sunshine.

When Smith once again devoted himself to the Cure, the music evolved from the sparse punk pop of that song and other early singles (“Boys Don’t Cry,” “Jumping Someone Else’s Train,” “The Lovecats”) to the dirgy, moody music of Faith and Seventeen Seconds, to the more focused hits on the later albums Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Disintegration, and Wish.

While the Cure had been a top hitmaking indie band in the U.K. since the early ’80s, it wasn’t until the release of Standing on a Beach (and its CD-only counterpart, Staring at the Sea) (#48, 1986) that the band moved beyond its cult status in the U.S. The double-album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (#35) debuted in June 1987, spawning the minor hits “Why Can’t I Be You?” (#54, 1987), “Just Like Heaven” (#40, 1987), and “Hot Hot Hot!!!” (#65, 1988). In 1989 Disintegration reached #12 and included the group’s biggest hit yet, “Love Song” (#2). Wish is the band’s most successful album to date, reaching #2 and including the surprisingly upbeat “Friday I’m in Love” (#18). The subsequent tour was documented on record and a film, both titled Show (an additional live collection, Paris, culled from the same tour was also released in 1993).

In 1996 the Cure released Wild Mood Swings (#12), which attempted to broaden the band’s sound to include a track of Latin-flavored pop, earning mostly negative reviews, and with “The 13th” (#44) its highest-charting single. Another best-of, Galore (#32), followed in 1997. Then, in 2000, Smith unveiled the band’s best-reviewed album in years, Bloodflowers. That same year, Smith launched a world tour by announcing that it would be the band’s last. But the bandleader soon began to hedge on that promise, saying all the subsequent attention and sudden acclaim made him strangely...happy.

from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)