The Cure were firm favourites during the final years of university. I loved the simplicity of their music, shunning both the over-production of the 80s and the sometime thuggishness of the late 70s' sound. I owned this on vinyl and played to to death, but only got round to buying it last week in a late night Ebay raid on Music Magpie.
It's a gentle introduction, with the bare instrumental A Reflection which leads straight into the wonderful Play For Today, staccato drums backing a pounding bass riff, before the guitar, and so-subtle keyboard motif kick in, and that's all before Robert Smith starts singing. Secrets and In Your House flow along, nice without standing out before the first half ends with the moody (almost) instrumental Three.
The Final Sound is almost an intro to the fantastic hit single A Forest, still fresh and interesting with minimal flourishes. Then follows M and At Night, again good songs but no more before the finale, Seventeen Seconds, a much slower song but a fantastic ending to this album.
This is a great album - not all great songs, but all listenable and a fine lesson in how great music can be made simply and easily, without resorting to just bashing out the chords. Somewhere over the years, The Cure and I parted company, and I'll have to investigate later stuff to find out when.
Link to album tracks
4* - a minimal masterpiece, with some Cure classics
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