The CURE for WHAT AILED ME - Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me | MUSIC is not a GENRE - Episode #1

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The CURE for What Ailed Me - Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (The Cure - 1987)

Let’s get this out of the way first. The Cure ranks top 5 for me. When I discovered them back in the mid ‘80s, they became instant soul mates. Like Prince & U2 – two other top 5-ers, they were just about 10 years older than I, and from the get-go showed me my musical future. Each one represented a way of digesting many influences and spitting out the results in a way that had emotional depth, musical intelligence, innovation & accessibility. They showed me what good, brainy pop music could be. In the case of The Cure, I learned it could be vulnerable, a little twee, dark, playful, frivolous, sonically rich and catchy all at once.

While their Head on the Door album would become my all-time fave, and Disintegration is probably a better album as well, it’s Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me that came out of the gate first. I latched onto it the very Tuesday it was released, and never let go. It mixed elements of goth, pop, college rock, punk, electro & northern soul into a double-album soup that yielded three big singles: “Hot Hot Hot!!!” – a dance club fave; “Why Can’t I Be You?” – a quintessential Cure song in so many ways, and at the time the biggest of these three; and “Just Like Heaven” – a song that has endured beyond the other two, has been covered tons, and is not only one of their best, but one of the best of the 1980s and the entire modern era.

There are dozens of songs of mine that have been influenced by The Cure, especially lyrically. Both sonically & lyrically, no song of mine comes closer than one I still perform live today:

REC - “Break You” (from the album Parts and Labour)

Ain’t no way I’m picking favorites – the list is too long. So instead I’ll highlight a much lesser-known track that has every Cure element I mentioned in the first paragraph, and is just hands down beautiful. And that is Side B Track 2 – “How Beautiful You Are”. I urge you to listen to my song above, and then this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s08jD3E6Mpg. You’ll be glad you did.

Discuss dammit!

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