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The Cure

EMAILPRINTby The Cure

The Cure reviews
75
7.2 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 25 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 45 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >

Album Info

Label: Geffen

Release Date: 29 June 2004

Discs: 1 disc

Genre(s): Alternative, Rock

Summary

The follow-up to 2000's 'Bloodflowers' sees Robert Smith & co. working with metal producer Ross Robinson (Limp Bizkit, Korn) for the first time (and apparently, he ate up so much of the recording budget that they couldn't afford an album cover artist).

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

90

The Guardian

Strikes a near-perfect balance between the various facets of the band's history.

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90

Uncut

This is a thrilling album, one that contains an extremity of sound and emotion that's unlikely to be matched by anyone else this year. [Album of the Month, Aug 2004, p.90]

80

Playlouder

Keep giving it a whirl though and it becomes something rather exquisite.

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80

Stylus Magazine

There are entirely too many nods to the past for this album to be a fresh start, yet it refuses to slip comfortably into place in their catalogue.

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80

New Musical Express (NME)

Startling from the first listen... the band are heavier, more menacing, more rhythmic than ever. [19 Jun 2004, p.55]

80

Rolling Stone

The new album is their most adventurous and passionate since Disintegration.

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80

Tiny Mix Tapes

This is a much better effort than anything they've done in quite some time.

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80

Dot Music

It's not a perfect record, but "The Cure" does achieve something quite remarkable and unexpected. It leaves you looking forward to their next one.

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78

Austin Chronicle

Brighter than Bloodflowers, denser than Wish, The Cure presents Smith as a wild-haired sorcerer's apprentice, conducting another mad symphony of infatuation and angst.

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77

Pitchfork

Invoking Disintegration is ridiculous, but The Cure is remarkably more thrilling a listen than the band's most recent guitar-heavy predecessors.

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76

Filter

Strangely timid in both its production choices and songwriting. [#11, p.92]

75

Entertainment Weekly

As with Prince on Musicology, Smith allows the Cure's current lineup to become his own tribute band. [9 Jul 2004, p.86]

75

Los Angeles Times

The lyric invention of past Cure albums is missing, but the pop transcendence emerges in fits.

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75

Spin

If The Cure feels like a recapitulation of the band's career, it's because they've recorded songs very much like these before. [Aug 2004, p.103]

75

E! Online

It's hard to imagine a set of songs that better reflects every phase the group has navigated through its turbulent career.

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70

Billboard

Some of its most appealing material in recent memory.

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70

PopMatters

Not the fresh start the band truly needed, The Cure at least succeeds in validating the current lineup of the band, as it is a compelling reminder of what made the Cure so great for so long.

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70

Mojo

The recorded-live-by-candlelight performances documented herein aren't short on the kind of clamorous foreboding and twisted pop nous a fan of Disintegration or The Head On The Door might hope for. [Aug 2004, p.87]

70

Flak Magazine

If approached with a substantial amount of skepticism and wariness, The Cure is not a complete disappointment. In fact, it's often surprisingly good and sometimes even great.

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60

The Onion (A.V. Club)

Nothing on The Cure really soars.

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60

ShakingThrough.net

Much of The Cure slogs along at the same churning, monotonous pace, and Smith, rambling in a croak-shout variation of his normal singing voice, does the material few favors.

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60

All Music Guide

The Cure have become journeymen, for better and worse, turning out well-crafted music that's easy to enjoy yet not all that compelling either.

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60

Q Magazine

This is The Cure sounding a lot like The Cure. Never a bad thing, just a familiar one. [Aug 2004, p.107]

50

Drawer B

Cure fans are certainly used to Smith’s voice being high in the mix, but on this record it can be overwhelming and stifling.

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40

Blender

They come off more than ever like a caricature. [Aug 2004, p.130]

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 7.2 (out of 10) based on 45 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jonathan E gave it a1:
I am a die hard Cure fan, I love everything they've done including (Wild Mood Swings). But this album was a huge disappointment. It's the absolute worst Cure album ever. After the brilliant beauty of "Bloodflowers" I was expecting something great. Instead we got...this atrocity. Thanks Ross Robinson.

tom pupet gave it a10:
brilliant

Jon D gave it a1:
Not a single stand out track, the few listenable songs are only decent and teh rest is just awful. The tracks are terribly written, the first 2 songs on the CD are 80% intros, they just build up to something and that something never comes. It was almost impossible for me to listen to this cd seriously it was so awful i really couldnt, it gets a 1 because if not taken seriously then you can laugh at how terrible it is.

Sebastian gave it a7:
“The Cure” = 7.7, and NO I didn’t get this score from Pitchfork, I did my own test, it’s quite easy. [You rate each song from the album out of a score of 0.5 to 5, and then you add them all up, divide the amount by the number of tracks on the album, then times it by 2.] This is my least favorite Cure album, and I'll tell you why. North America got the stupid track listing, while the UK and Japan got 2 to 3 extra songs which are PURE brilliant. This = very lame, I want Robert Smith to reissue this album with the UK track listing which he said himself feels is the correct track listing that goes for this album.

aaron w gave it a0:
A little late on reviewing this, but it's started to bug me a bit, even in 2006. My god, what happened? people ask. I will tell you what happened to this record: Ross Robinson. Evidently, Robert Smith, instead of producing the album like he always used to, decidedly to hand pick a new producer to give the Cure a new sound and perspective. They just so happened to choose a guy who's claim to fame is producing Korn, Slipknot, and Limp fucking Bizkit. Why, Robert? Why??? And it shows, my friends. This is absolutely the worst Cure album I have ever heard. This is coming from somebody who actually really liked Bloodflowers and Wild Mood Swings ("Want" is probably the quintessential Cure song for me, and the closer is phenomenal, so stop bitching.) But no fear! It seems that Robert has gotten his shit together since firing two of the band members and getting Porl Thompson, the guitarist for the Cure during their glory days. He will be producing their new album. Hopefully, mundane and trite shit like their self-titled will be a brief stain on an otherwise amazing career.

David B gave it a10:
A splendid album!!!

Davis W gave it a7:
I love the Cure and I enjoy this album although I don't find myself listening to it all that much. I guess they just don't sound like they used to, but I'm still glad that they're around keeping it real.

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