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The Head on the Door

The Cure - The Head on the Door Audio CD

A fair review of the The Cure "The Head on the Door" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all The Cure reviews here, or go back to the The Cure tabs.

Band: The Cure
Title: The Head on the Door
Rating:

Release Date: 1990-10-25
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: In Between Days 2: Kyoto Song 3: Blood 4: Six Different Ways 5: Push 6: Baby Screams 7: Close to Me 8: Night Like This 9: Screw 10: Sinking

Not what I expected, but still good.
This album is much more mainstream and poppy then what I had come to expect from the cure. The Head on the Door breaks away from The Cures previous traditon of releasing dark and goth like albums. It is more inline with Three Imaginary Boys then Seventeen Seconds or Pornograpy. Highlights of the album include Kyoto Song, Push, and A Night like this.

The Best Cure Album! Bar none.
I had been a casual fan for a few years, but never rabid. When this album first came out, it was a total revelation. This record changed that.
I may be in the minority, and this flies in the face of convention (sorry Matt & Trey) but the Cure would never make an album this brilliant again. Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me was certainly great (well, except "Walking on Sunshine". . . er, I mean "All I want Is You") And Disintegration was a great (if overly long) statement. But no other release carried such an overall broad, yet concise approach that keeps Head sounding so fresh after 21 years.
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Not just the best Cure, an all-time great by any band
Into the late '80s, I'd heard and owned every Cure album at one point or another. There isn't much point in me reiterating what just about every other review here says. Today, I own one and only one Cure album, and this is it. I even went out of my way to grab a copy on vinyl.

There is a presence on this album that transcends what the Cure were. It simply nails a particular sound that drives on all cylinders and yet manages to keep from sounding stale by the end of the disc. I'm still sad when it's over.

Oddly enough, I saw a video for Inbetween Days on Fuse last night. Twenty-plus years after the album comes out and I see a video for the first time. Very strange. Needless to say, I had to stop what I was doing, sit down, and watch every second of it.

I will continue to listen to this album until I die, I'm sure. I must recommend this album to everybody. It's a classic. Go get it. You will not be sorry.

The Head on The Door....
Though this is the premier Cure album for most. . . All Cure recordings are timeless. As I listen to "Pornography" or "Faith" both still seem new and vibrant. As "The Cure" progressed into the '90's they went from dark to somewhat bright with "Friday I'm in Love" (not a favorite of mine). IPrsonally prefer the darker, yet intriguing "Cure" of the early/mid to late 80's. Push, Sinking, Screw, When the Baby Screams. . . all the best and most memorable tracks from The Cure!.

a GREAT album--superior craftsmanship and an engaging mixture of styles
Originally released in August of 1985, "The Head On The Door" left no doubt whatsoever as to who the main creative force in the Cure was: Robert Smith. Depending on whether or not you count 1983's "Japanese Whispers" as an actual 'non-compilation' album, "The Head On The Door" is either the 7th or 6th proper Cure album since their 1979 debut "Three Imaginary Boys". Regardless of what other members came and went, The Cure's very existence rested squarely on the shoulders of Robert Smith.

With "The Head On The Door", it appears that Smith decided, for once, to acknowledge that he essentially WAS The Cure--Smith has sole writing credit for every track on the album instead of the usual crediting of all the members in the band at the respective time (I don't mean to imply that Smith's fellow band members NEVER contributed any songwriting ideas to the band). The resulting album is an absolute classic that also marks yet another key turning point for the band.

Smith had already begun to demonstrate that the Cure weren't going to get pigeon-holed into a single style and that their sound would evolve over time. Unlike earlier albums such as "Seventeen Seconds" and "Faith" which, as great as they are, are very uniform in sound and style, "The Head On The Door" is an impressive mixture of various stylings, and yet, every track contains that unique, distinct Cure-ness to it that we know and love the band for. Another thing is that none of the songs here reach the 5-minute mark, HIGHLY unusual for a Cure album--a majority of the songs are even under 4--but don't let that mislead you into thinking this album is a crass 'pop-rock sell-out', because, with the quasi-exception of "Inbetween Days", it simply is NOT.

Most of the songs are absolutely terrific. As usual, most of them are also either creepy, haunting, and mysterious, or some combination of those three. "Kyoto Song" has a fittingly Oriental flavor to it with its percussive melody and droning arpegiatted guitarwork, and it features Smith layering his own voice magnificently. "The Blood" mixes flamenco-styled guitars with an Indian flavor that evoke images of a desert--extremely fitting since Smith make references to mirages in the lyrics. The waltzing "Six Different Ways" is a really fun, whimsical-sounding tune matched to highly mysterious, and rather cartoonish lyrics. The uptempo "Push" is a surging, exhiliarting song with ringing guitar and piano interplay and a great opening riff. "The Baby Screams" is a great example of the Cure's attention to arrangement detail--an ominous, uptempo tune stuffed with catchy hooks and soaring Smith vocals. "A Night Like This" is simply a great, supremely tuneful minor-keyed pop-rocker. The bouncy and 'dementedly'-cheerful "Screw" is great fun, built around an infectious fuzz bass riff.

And then the best is saved for last. Well, considering how great most of the songs are, it's not really fair to say "Sinking" is THE best song on the album, but it's a particular personal favorite of mine. It's an absolutely wrenching minor-keyed epic arranged to perfection with a thick bass line, a swaying rhythmic feel, contemplative guitar washes, rippling pianos, and soaring synthesized strings. And Robert Smith brings the song to an almost overwhelming outpouring of emotion. Again, a great example of the Cure's increasingly elaborate, lush instrumental arrangements, this song points straight down the road to "Disintegration". It'd be somewhat tempting to give the album five stars just for this song alone--well, you probably see what I mean.

Ironically, the only two songs that are slightly disappointing are the two hit singles. "Inbetween Days" is an undeniably catchy pop-rock song that totally lays the groundwork for "Just Like Heaven"--the latter of which is perhaps their most well-known song--but ". . Days" has kind of a nagging "we're trying for a hit single" vibe to it with its obvious lyrics and somewhat sugar-coated feel. And the funky, starkly-arranged "Close To Me" is marred considerably by Smith's 'heavy breathing' sounds that run throughout the song--otherwise it's amusingly 'spooky' and a lot of fun; and it's worth pointing out that the single mix of "Close To Me" does differ considerably from the album version (there are no horns on the album version).

So, a couple minor gripes here, but by all means, the positives steamroll the negatives. For any serious listener, "The Head On The Door" is a hands-down must-have album from one of the best bands of all time.

You can see a complete list of all The Cure discography, or go back to the The Cure tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.