European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 6, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse A better cures a Michael Abrams the cure inset with Lead Singer Robert Smith left has released a new album it is the band s darkest album since 1982 s by . Considine the Baltimore Suna s he sat in his hotel r Oom in Copenhagen Denmark on a sunny afternoon Robert Smith was looking at nothing but beginnings Smith and his band the cute wore just about to embark on a tour that would take them across Europe and then America moreover the group s new album. Disintegration had just arrived in record stores and there were two new singles Lullaby in Britain fascination Street in America to track on the charts and yet Smith was thinking about the end not of the Lour but cd the cure Itsell. Some of that he admitted was a function of the new album s title which seems to suggest that the cure is on the verge of tailing apart. That is not the Case. Smith insisted instead it s a very Good reason not to Call it disintegration " i was aware of those sorts of things when i went to title the album disintegration i was aware that it might put some people off who might think. Of this is the last record but then. I always think it s the last record he added with a smile so i Don t see Why everyone else should t get that Corning alter the successful kiss me kiss me kiss me. Which sold half a million copies in the United Stales alone and finally put the cure into the american top 40, such pessimism is unseemly. Most musicians in fact would be eager to keep that momentum going yet Smith his smile a faded lipstick smear across the deathly Pale of his lace seems genuinely uninterested in commercial Success. I would love the idea of the cure having a no. T single in England after All this time he said. But i would t do anything to help it he added with a laugh. If it does t happen it s naturally such single mindedness Only endears him to his fans. Besides his fatalism regarding the cure s future May be More a matter of habit than intention. Every Lime we come out of the studio i think that s it " he said. After kiss me Lor at least eight months i did t think we d make another record or play any More concerts. I was convinced of that. Then when i m out with the others it just sort of alls Back into place again and we Start doing ii has been that Way since the beginning he added Ever since seventeen seconds the cure s second album. It s just that i think in you have any kind of feeling thai the group is going to carry on regardless it introduces needless to say the cure has carried on producing a dozen albums since 1978 despite Smith s ongoing insistence that the end is near. Each time i say it i feel stronger that it s probably True he said. But then i said that last time so they be started to disbelieve me. I blew my Trump card too Early i think " yet Given the gloomy nature of the band s new album it is tempting to take Smith seriously this Lime. With songs about loss pictures of you romantic estrangement plainsong and dangerous intimacy Lullaby. Disintegration is the darkest cure album since 1982 s Mega depressing pornography. Naturally some of that derives from the band s sound instrumentally the band s somber sound stems in part rent the fact thai both Smith and guitarist porn Thompson often use a six siring Bass in place of guitar to of the charts top singles 1. Hangin Tough new pm on the by 2 Colo hearted Paul Amul 3 dont Wanna lose you Gloria Encelan 4 heaven warrant 5 right Here waiting Ric Nafo mar. 6. Shower me with your love surface 7. Girls m Gonna miss you mini Valb 8. Angel eyes the a Fly Horta toy band 9 if i could turn Back time Cher 10.18 and life skid Row Topps 1. Hangin Tough new it on the Block 2. Repeat offender Al Chat Marx 3. Forever your girl Paula Abdul 4. Girl you know its True Mortti Vanilla 5 Batman soundtrack Pence 6 full Moon fever Tom Petty 7. Skid Row skid Row 8. Cuts both ways Gloria Eft Lelan 9 the end of the innocence Don Henl 10. The raw and the cooked Fine Young Henley Ca Moala country singles 1.1 wonder do you think of me Keith Whitley 2. Nothing i can 00 about it now Wnelson 3. Above and beyond Rodney Crowe 4 let me Tell you about love the Juddi 5. Give me his last Chance Lionel caning fat 6 Highway 101 7.1 got dreams Sieve Wanner 8. time cent Black 9 Don t you the forester Spiten 10. I m still crazy vein Goton Black singles 1 my fantasy Teddy Fluey j Guy 2 remember the first time Eric oath 3 spend the night the Isle Yoio 4 let of Sharon Bryant 5 taste of your love c u 6 put your Mouth on me add Murphy 7. Its no crime baby lace 8 too Natal Cole 9. Can t get Over you male Lua Lunog r link Beverly to. If you asked me to Patu Labue top pop cd s i. Fuu Moon fever Tom Petty 2.theenoof innocence Don Henley 3. Repeat offender Richard Man 4. Girl you know it s True i Van 5. The raw and the cooked Floe Young cardio Al 6 cuts Bot ways Gloria etl Lfan 7. Forever your girl Paula Abdul 8. Batman soundtrack Prince 9. Skid Row skid Row 10. Hanoi Tough new Kadi on the bks a on Many songs adding a dark plan gent Lone to the proceedings and in part from the Way keyboardist Roger o Donnell s heavy Semi orchestral synthesizers rumble through the Echo Laden studio. The re Uil is music As minimal As it is monolithic and quite a contrast to Smith s wobbly tremulous voice granted. Smith never intended to be the band s Singer when started to said. I was t the Singer i was the drunk re Yum guitarist who wrote All these weird sonic j Uno tuna fair none of the designated Jiri Geis were any Fjald at he Jab i always ended up thinking. I Ccu i a Tetter than this " Smith recalled so gradually i started singing first or i Conj and then it i two , until i reached the Petit where. I a can. I hated my voice but i did t Hale it More irian i hated everyone else s it he cd. Cd course that Smith s Eric seems so Al Home in his songs. I think the weirdest thing about the Way i sin is that most of the time it s like How i talk sort of and Hal adds an extra measure of poignancy to Smith s lyrics which manage in Lew words to convey a world of introspection doubt and emotional anxiety. In his youth. Smith contemplated a career in writing and though to now shrugs away the idea with a typically modest i m not Good his lyrics have the ability to express personal emotions vividly without getting bogged Down in the specifics of someone else s life there Are two reasons for doing he said. One is the obvious reason that i want the songs to Appeal to people on a level where they think this is me this could be to because it s a Good feeling when you hear a song and think wow that s exactly How i Leel if i name names people won t think that s me they la think. That s Robert Smith singing and i Don t like that. Who am i to sit and moan and Wail i Don t think what i a feeling is particularly special. The other reason is that i find in very difficult to write specifically he continued i actually have started out with something that s happened and i end up taking All the names out of it and trying to get to the essence of what s actually upset me. I often find that it in t because it s me and someone else or because i was somewhere and something happened it actually goes much much deeper than it also opens a certain amount of communication Between the band and its following. One of the really Good things about being in a group is that you attract a lot of people who do other things and sort of give us things. It might be poetry they be written. A lot of people who paint have Given me things that they be painted. It s just an expression of their trying to give me something Back. And that s How i Leel Aboul what i do. It s not separate it s just there. It s part of everything that s going wednesday septembers 1989 the stars and stripes Page 17
