Why Can’t I Be A Cure Fan Like You?

From A.V. Club:

"Gwen Ihnat: The Cure didn’t exactly make a U-turn in 1987 with Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, but it was a hell of a reroute. The iconically mopey band, led by head goth/grump Robert Smith, all of a sudden had a cheerful horn section in “Why Can’t I Be You?” that threaded throughout the double album. And while its poppiness—and the smash success of “Just Like Heaven”—helped Kiss Me become The Cure’s first Top 40 record in the U.S., it also became the first Cure record I never bought.

I was probably slightly too cheerful to be too much of a goth. In my younger years, I preferred buoyant outfits like Simple Minds or lively pop like Squeeze. But whenever I was mad at my parents, my sibling, or the world—like teens before and after me—The Cure was the perfect solace. I tried albums like Pornography and The Top, but my go-to was Standing On A Beach, a compilation of The Cure’s first 13 U.K. singles. Dark sonic journeys like “The Walk,” “The Hanging Garden,” and especially “Charlotte Sometimes” made for ideal wallowing music. I could even appreciate when the band perked up a little bit, like in “Let’s Go To Bed” and the cute “The Love Cats.” And I stayed on board through The Head On The Door, mostly because of “In Between Days.”

Read the rest at A.V. Club.