7 Things You Didn't Know About 'Friday I'm in Love'

From Rolling Stone:

 The darkest funeral dirge sounds almost peppy compared to the goth apocalypse of the Cure's Disintegration, a 1989 album completed under such fraught circumstances that frontman Robert Smith seriously wondered if it would be the band's last. When they managed to endure following a series of personnel changes, Smith and Co. tackled their next project with a new, cautiously optimistic outlook.

Released in 1992, Wish would be the Cure's commercial apex, a diverse collection of instantly accessible songs that combined Smith's talent for creating dense lyrical thickets with some of the most tuneful melodies the group ever recorded. Though a few clouds appear on the horizon (see the heartbreaking ballad "Apart" and the epic drama of "From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea"), the album flaunts an upbeat tone. "High" is a musical sugar rush, and "Doing the Unstuck" features the shockingly un-Cure-like lines, "Kick out the gloom!/Kick out the blues!/Tear out the pages with all the bad news!" 

Chief among the album's highlights is "Friday I'm in Love," an unrepentantly catchy pop song dripping with exuberance. It became one of the Cure's highest charters, and also one of the most identifiable singles of their 40-year-plus career.

In spite of the album's comparatively sunny sound, Smith balked at any suggestions that he was (gasp!) happy. "Say 'happier.' I'm still miserable overall," he insisted to Spin just after Wish's release. "I think, words-wise, there are only two songs on the new album that are miserable, so I guess I can't be that miserable at the moment – but I am, really. It's that same core of despair that never goes away." Perhaps it's only fitting that the Cure's next album would be titled Wild Mood Swings.

The Cure's most pop-friendly LP to date was also among their biggest sellers, debuting at Number Two on the Billboard charts. Today Wish remains a cornerstone of the band's catalogue and one of their most beloved works. In honor of its 25th anniversary, we look at some fascinating facts about the album's smash single, "Friday I'm in Love."

Read the rest at Rolling Stone.