The Guide to Getting into The Cure

Contrary to popular belief, The Cure's music isn't all doom and gloom. The band has a deep and varied catalog.

Being a fan of The Cure requires a little bit of patience and a willingness for devotion. With 13 studio albums, five live albums, ten compilations and singles collections, and nearly 40 singles and EPs, the band has built a daunting discography for newcomers. And that was all achieved before 2009. Though The Cure has continually teased new music since the release of 2008's 4:13 Dream, unless they surprise-release something before the year's end, it'll have been a full decade without new music from the band. Yet in that time, they've still flexed their muscles, headlining major music festivals like Lollapalooza, Coachella, and Riot Fest, as well as playing several nights on their own at Madison Square Garden and Wembley Arena.

A hidden challenge when getting into The Cure is denouncing the stereotypes that have long followed the band. On the surface, a Cure record may come across like a wall-to-wall mope fest, and while there's truth in that, it's not the totality of the band's being. Though it should be obvious from the existence of songs like "Friday I'm in Love," "The Lovecats," or "Doing the Unstuck," there's a joyful giddiness undercutting much of frontman Robert Smith's work. Though his art may skew toward the self-serious—and the fact he resembles a goth grandma doesn't help—there's more to The Cure than what a cursory glance would reveal.

So how does one get into The Cure, a band who has a catalog that's not just vast, but full of worthwhile material? And how does one make sense of a discography that includes everything from goth to pop and post-punk to psych? The only way to understand The Cure is to embrace the twists and turns of their discography, knowing that if one part of their sound doesn't appeal to you, there's another half-dozen that may.

Read the rest at Noisey.