Glad to see some love for “The Top”! Definitely in my top three. Such a weird, dark, psychedelic album. It is truly unique in their catalogue.

I was so pleased to see The Top mentioned. It really is the first album to exhibit the band’s sonic aesthetic as we know it. Shake Dog Shake, Birdmad Girl and Dressing up are particular highlights.

Growing-up in a rural community outside Kansas City in the 1980s, my classmates listened to Bon Jovi, Madonna and Motley Crue. I was the oddball for liking U2. When I moved into suburban Kansas City, my mom got cable and that was the first time I heard and saw Fascination Street on MTV. I'd heard of The Cure but, I never heard one of their songs. I loved it and bought a used copy of Disintegration, the first and only Cure album I own. I also got into Depeche Mode a year later and bought their Violator CD. After college, I moved to Los Angeles and the radio stations were very friendly to The Smiths, The Cure, Depeche Mode and Led Zeppelin. They used to have a yearly Depeche Mode convention in Los Angeles. I'm not sure if they still do because I don't live in L.A. anymore. Anyway, my musical horizons expanded greatly particularly when I left The Midwest.

OMG! It was KYLE who said that Disintegration is the best album ever, not Cartman! How could I get that wrong?!

This was so fun to watch!!!! I wish it lasted longer🎉

Wow, that would be the most difficult task for me. The Cure is my favorite band. Right of the bat, I’d say: 3) The Top-I love the diversity on that record. It’s mostly pop crafted goth, but there are still some heavy gems like Shake dog shake, and the ominous disturbing Piggy in the mirror. Inam also a fan of Andy Anderson drumming. 2) Disintegration-What else can be said about this record? It’s their masterpiece and what brought them to the mainstream. What I appreciate about this record is that for an album that it’s their best selling, it is particularly dark. I always enjoy watching “Lullaby” played on daytime MTV. That video is scar AF. 1) The head on the door-This is a perfect album. Consistent, great songwriting, it flows beautifully, it ends in such an epic way. It’s an album that needs to be listen to from beginning ti end every time.

Total metal for me in the eighties and got into the cure in early 90's..3.kiss me 2.disintegration 1.wish

So good to hear the love for The Top and that video on The Top being underrated is one of my favourite videos about The Cure: such a great album review.

Pornography might be my very favourite album (by anyone). I'm a sucker for 80s goth/post-punk production, so while I've noted the 'sameness' from start to finish, but I love it: the dissonance, the echoing drums, and reverb-heavy, jangling guitar, alongside the wailing, desperate vocals. It's an intense listen, and probably a good start for people coming from metal backgrounds.

When the notification poped up on my phone I thought: "I bet Grant and Andy will be on board for this one". My top 3 (which can change any given day). 1-The Head on The Door / 2-Disintegration / 3-Wish. In the 80's, Pornography used to be my number 1. It's way easier to say the ones that don't make my Top 3 (anything after Wish). They're not bad albums, but they can't cut the mustard (Echo & The Bunnymen reference). Cheers!! Great show, great insights. Andy's comment on The Top was spot on. I go as far as saying that Robert became the singer that he is on the Glove project. Though, for contractual reasons, he was not aloud to sing on that project. But The Glove demos (released on the deluxe edition) have him sing all the songs. And it was there that he found his ultimate singing voice, hence The Top being the album where Robert put it all together.

Pornography, Seventeen Seconds, Faith. The only albums they did that really matter.

Cool video, everyone. The Cure is a band I used to hate, until I got a little older. I still am a noob with them, but I picked up the Faith album a few years back, and actually liked it. Been debating on which one to get next.

Nice to see The Cure being featured Hope more new wave / punk/ goth bands will be coming..

#1: Disintegration #2: Pornography #3: Faith or The Top. Saw them on the Disintegration tour and they were MAGIC! Cheers.

The Cure always had great B-Sides. I agree! If it counted as an album, the Standing On A Beach/Staring At The Sea compilation was my favorite! It was the cassette only version. Side A was all of their early singles, and the B-sides, of course, were all on side B. I grew to prefer Side B over time. Official albums I have to say 1. Faith 2. The Top 3. Disintegration

Well, this'll be a long "comment" so forgive the breadth. Loved this band immediately. Discovered them in 1983 when I was 17. A friend handed me a cassette version of "THE WALK" EP. Loved every song on it (save for "Let's Go to Bed," which I've never really liked very much) Bertha BUTT..."everything else" on THE WALK is utterly fantastic! For me, truly some of the greatest CURE is there: "The Dream," "Just One Kiss," "Lament," "The Walk," "The Upstairs Room," Just brilliant throughout. So it was love at first listen and that EP with it's cool black "FLY" cover, has never gotten old on me. That said, it is an EP, so let's call it a very serious honorable mention. And I can't say "Japanese Whispers" because that also includes a few lesser, quasi-goofy tracks and the cover art is nowhere near as cool as "The Walk" Anyway...for me, the best CURE (even though "Disintegration" is an awesome epic, and I do like "Wish" quite a bit too..well, syrupy single notwithstanding) will always be 1978-1985. So here are my Top 3, along with reasons below 👇 1. SEVENTEEN SECONDS (1980) Honestly love all the albums from '78-'85, but this one almost sentimentally ranks highest for me because, even though it's not technically as epic, inventive or fleshed out as other greats, it still comes off as the 'purest' version of The Cure. A kind of perfect sweet spot between early punk influenced hits and the later, more funeral dirgy slabs (which really started kicking into gear on the subsequent "FAITH" LP in '81) Obviously, SS might a bit to simplistic or, I dunno, "reclusive" for some, but it's the record (meaning --full proper album--) that first made me realize that this group would be with me for the rest of my days. *I just wish this one included "Primary," as well, which is an absolutely killer upbeat single from the otherwise slow, misty and eerie "Faith.") In a perfect world, I'd love to say "Happily Ever After" for this slot, as that would give me both SS & Faith (i.e. the purest Cure) Highlights from 0:17 ---> A Forest, Secrets, M, Seventeen Seconds, Play For Today, In Your House. 2. THE HEAD ON THE DOOR (1985) Absolutely brilliant album from start to finish. Here, we have the most "realized" CURE. I must've played this record 600 times from 1985-1986. Some of my fave Cure cuts here too: "The Blood," "Kyoto Song," "A Night Like This," "Sinking" Overall, the true breakthrough album featuring big hits, "In Between Days" as well as the creepy, infectious, sort of 'more bouncy pre-cursor to Lullaby', "Close To Me." "Screw" could've been an interesting (at least video) hit as well. side note: The color blue 🔵 within the black, really does match up so perfectly with this album 3. BOYS DON'T CRY (1979) superior US version of TIB, including the killer singles/b-sides, "Plastic Passion" "Killing an Arab," "Object" "Jumping Someone Else's Train" & the title track. This "comp" version of TIB just plays back better. Almost like an early greatest hits. And it's just catchy as all get out! -- Any true, original Cure fan understands and remembers waiting patiently for "Subway Song" (the last track of side one) to fade out and lilt away to nearly nothing before ..... 🤯 *Not to mention singing out the letters of "Fire In Cairo" F-I-R-E-I-N-C-A-I-R-O!!!..... *So there's three. It's hard for me to not include "THE WALK" EP because I love it very dearly, but again, it is an EP, so consider it an A+ bonus selection! Also, I really love "THE TOP" (1984) -- this is the Cure's most bizarre and wildly unpredictable album. And on the strength of three really great tracks ("Shake Dog Shake," "Bananafishbones" and "The Top") I wish I could include it. A very unique, psychedelic and affecting LP. Ending with the exhausted drop...of the top. "PORNOGRAPHY" (1982) is surely a dark epic in the Cure canon. Not to mention, a classic example of quality, highly involving (near scary) Gothic rock of the early 80s. And then the excellent "DISINTEGRATION" (1989) which is a bit like "Head on the Door," in that it was kind of a "second breakthrough" album. I mean, KMKMKM featured those couple of big sugary hits, but as an album, "Disintegration" completely overpowered it as a late-era defining statement of the genre. There is a slight, "slow moving samey-ness" to it and since it runs just about 70m, that might normally be an issue. But the quality of the songwriting is top shelf, the performances are stellar, and you do get a few disparate, more energetic or strangely unique numbers like "Lullaby" (which was an instant fave for me), "Fascination Street" and their brilliant, emotionally captivating hit "Love Song" to sort of break that up that 'deep ocean samey-ness" a bit. Obviously, this album belongs on any "best of Cure" list. So it's another one I love quite a bit. And there was much excitement in purchasing it at Strawberries Records in 1989. ----> Finally, to "Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me" (a still quasi off putting album title that you could only decide on after establishing a strong fan base) Okay, since this one came up several times... I think, for a lot of core fans, the arrival of KMKMKM brought a bit of a push back (at least concerning "the hits"..many of the album tracks were still pure, intoxicating Cure) but in general, it might've just signaled some "all too delightful, sugary pop leanings" (later cemented with 'Friday I'm in Love') that kind of smacked directly against so much of what we loved about the band in the earlier years. This is not to say I don't like "Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me" (I do, and over the years even more), but I could never rank it up at the top there with the albums that preceded it, or "Disintegration." This one's a bit like Kiss - "Unmasked" or post Ricky Wilson B-52s for similar reasons. Anyway, I remember how I felt then, when KMKMKM came out. Liked it okay, but didn't 'love it' like the others. And that opinion has never changed. It's a good record. --Still have my like new double vinyl with the hype sticker and all. And those center labels are very cool too. I just prefer the more primal, darker and to an extent (with that seminal Happily Ever After '80-'81set) simpler Cure. But maybe it's because I'm a guitarist too, and those earlier albums are also a bit more guitar centric in different ways. Even when they got a little more Siouxsie (eg "Hanging Garden," "Charlotte," etc.) it was all still more guitar laden than what it felt like it was becoming in '87. Also, my all time fave artists are DAVID BOWIE, BLACK SABBATH ('70-'83), AC/DC ('74-'83) LED ZEPPELIN (esp. the more eclectic "III" through "Presence" era) + The Cure, and those obviously represent a place where a lot of legendary guitars and drums live and still inspire. So its not to say that good pop oriented (albeit more edgy) songs didn't happen before that KMKMKM album, they def did (and hey, "Just Like Heaven" is a wonderful pop single) but I'd have to say that many Core-Cure lovers might like "Shake Dog Shake" more. And at the time, they certainly didn't want to already start saying goodbye to the kind of stylistic efforts that made the band so attractive to begin with. Such as these dark, catchy killer gems below (all of which that helped create such fervent support of the band, well before KMKMKM, inadvertently or not, brought in the regular Top 40/MTV set) : "Faith," "Jumping Someone Else's Train," "M," "The Blood," "Killing an Arab," "Primary," "A Forest," "One Hundred Years," "The Top," "Secrets," "Charlotte Sometimes," "Kyoto Song," "Just One Kiss," "Lament," "Seventeen Seconds," "The Hanging Garden," "A Night Like This," "Other Voices," "The Dream," "Three Imaginary Boys," "Shake Dog Shake," "In Your House," "Sinking," "The Walk," "Bananafishbones," "Close To Me," "Plastic Passion," "The Upstairs Room," etc. In the end, it's the above songs that are much of the reason I love THE CURE. And I'm still, at some point, going to make my marvelous, career overview box set of the band. I've had the title for years now...."I WANT TO BE OLD" (1978 ---

Surprised 'Seventeen Seconds' wasn't mentioned at all! It's probably my #1 followed by Disintegration and The Head on the Door.

Great discussion and analysis! And thank you for the education. I only own Boys Don't Cry, Disintegration, Wish, and Show so I really appreciated the discussion about the albums between Boys Don't Cry and Disintegration and the later ones as well. Thanks!

In the 80s, I mostly overlooked The Cure. Sometime in the 90s I started to pay closer attention. Now they are in my top ten all-time favorite bands. Here are my three album picks: 1. Disintegration 2. Seventeen Seconds 3. Pornography My honorable mention is Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me.

Well there are two natural goth trilogies. First one is Seventeen Seconds, Faith and Pornography. The other being also Pornography, Desintegration and Bloodflowers. Or you could choose 3 of their more poppy albums like Head in the Door, Wish and wild mood swings. You also can go with the epics like Kiss me Kiss me Kiss me and Desintegration. Their first album and The later "The Cure" albums are also unique, one is a post punk masterpiece and The Cure is one of their heaviest albums. I think The Top is also a heavy post punk album. If you choose the heaviest ones those could be Pornography, The Top and The Cure. My personal favorites might be the first one, Kiss me and Desintegration. And my second choice would be the first goth trilogy, but every Cure album is unique.

Interesting choice 'The Top', I like the album but it has been forever since I have spun it, need to change that

Great topic. I am 50yo and although I have always been a metalhead, I love equally the 80's newwave music. And The Cure were a big part of it. I can pick any 3 from the 80's era. I kinda like "Wish" but cannot stand anything after. Now, they need to freaking release The Cure Show on DVD/BluRay !

My top three Cure albums consist of one album that I can still listen to daily, after decades, and two others that I love almost as much, but which are not daily listens, due to sheer heaviness of mood. My number one, "The Head On The Door," is one of my favorite albums by *any* band of *any* genre. I love "Pornography" and "Faith" almost as much, but they are so dark and melancholy that I can't listen to them every day.

Grant is right about The Big Hand.

1.Disintegration 2.Wish 3.Kiss me....

For me #3 is Head on the Door, just a masterwork of beautiful songs and stunning arrangements, #2 is Faith one of their truly 'gothic' albums and the poetry, weaving basslines and melodic drumming do it for me, it is gloomy but not oppressive #1 is Disintigration just epic and easily the best, as well as the first one that I got, and an album I play all the time and have for 30 years. Honorable mention is Show, which is a great live album from the Wish tour, and it is mostly the songs of Wish, but the mix on the Wish album is very dry, but the live album appropriately adds drama and life to all the songs, and again is an album I often put on.

I like Seventeen Seconds the most. I have only heard a handful of their albums so that could change in the future.

i had to pause this to go watch the Lullaby video

1 Seventeen Seconds 2 Three Imaginary Boys 3 Faith

Todd is spot on with bloodflowers you have to listen to it a few times great album.

Id have to go Wish Kiss me kiss me kiss me Disintegration The order 1-3 changes often

I really like the song A Forest. The Cure are a band I need to explore more of. I know that Disintegration is their biggest selling album.

My top 3 Cure albums 1 - The Faith 2 - Seventeen Seconds 3 - Bloodflowers

good b side BURN off of the Crow soundtrack

Watching the excellent panel discussion between Reed, Todd and Grant at the following address (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mMl-gs9h3diRnmQ.html ) made me aware of this Contrarians discussion which I also found very enjoyable. Thanks for doing it.

I only really know the albums from 85-92. The golden period to me. My top 3 is together, the head on the door, kiss me, disintegration.

I agree that with the Cure, their b-sides are often better than the album tracks. Exploding Boy is my favorite.

1. Seventeen Seconds 2 Kiss me Kiss me Kiss me 3. Faith

What is your top The Cure album?? Support us on Patreon or Ko-Fi: www.patreon.com/contrarians ko-fi.com/thecontrarians

Wish is the Wish version of Disintegration

Wild Mood Swings Wish Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me

Fantastic show love the cure for me disintegration Pornographe Head on the door

More on why The Top is great: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jZNoZdtpmKnGmqM.html

South Park reference !🙂

My top 3 (even tho I love more than 3) would probably be Faith, Pornography and Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me.

My favorite 3 Cure albums are: 3. Faith 2. Seventeen Seconds 1. Pornography The rest of their discography doesn’t do it for me. After Pornography it got too poppy and happy sounding. The lyrics revolved largely around romance which I couldn’t get into though I will say Disintegration was a solid album besides love song (I hated that song lol). But yeah Pornography is my favorite from them and A strange day is the best song on there. Kind of a spiritual successor to “A forest” in many ways.

My top 3 are: 1. Wish 2. The head on the door 3. Pornography

Disintigration, Faith, Pornography..... brilliant band, at least up til 1992 ; )

These videos are so interesting to listen to, but not at all interesting to watch. So when you hold up a record and start talking about it without saying the title, we don’t know what you’re talking about.

Lame. Not one of these so called fans have pornography in their top 3?!!??

The Top. Best album