Cure albums in order of greatness - easy

thecure
#1

Studio albums -

  1. Disintegration
  2. Wish
  3. Bloodflowers
  4. The Head On The Door
  5. Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
  6. Pornography
  7. Seventeen Seconds
  8. Wild Mood Swings
  9. Three Imaginary Boys
  10. Faith
  11. The Top
  12. 4:13 Dream
  13. The Cure
#2

Is it embarrassing to have only listened to three of those? Kiss me X3 put me off exploring more…

#3

Soooo looking forward to seeing them live for the first time in November - been going through the albums last few weeks in prep…

#4

I only have Kiss Me and love it, but it’s quite big and varied, so not bothered with any others. Maybe I will try some of your top four. Disintegration is one of those records I’ve always been perversely put off trying because of how much others fawn over it.

#5
  1. Seventeen Seconds
  2. Faith
  3. Pornography
  4. Three Imaginary Boys
  5. The Head On The Door
  6. Disintegration
  7. The Top

That’ll do…

#6

lol @ Faith at 10

#7
  1. Pornography
  2. Disintegration
  3. Faith
  4. The Head On The Door
  5. Seventeen Seconds
  6. Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me
  7. Three Imaginary Boys
  8. The Top
  9. Wish

haven’t really listened to anything released after Wish

#8

I’ve never listened to any Cure albums, even though I’ve loved all the singles for years. Might change that this week.

#9
  1. Seventeen Seconds
  2. Pornography
  3. Faith
  4. Disintegration
  5. The Top
  6. Wish
  7. Three Imaginary Boys
  8. The Head on the Door
  9. Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me

Cant explain why but basically the only one I listen to is Seventeen Seconds which I love and even though it obviously is The Cure I just see it as kind of separate to everything else they did - somehow I just think of it as Seventeen Seconds rather than Seventeen Seconds by The Cure…

#10

I’ll be honest although Faith’s definitely the one I respect most I don’t really give it many spins, it’s too intense and morose even for me.

#11

1/ Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
2/ Seventeen Seconds
2/ Pornography
2/ Disintegration
5/ The Head on the Door
6/ Faith
7/ Wish
8/ Three Imaginary Boys
9/ The Top
10/ Wild Mood Swings

Disintegration was my favourite Cure album, but reading some of your analyses of it on DiS has made me like it less.

#12
  1. Disintegration
  2. Pornography
  3. Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
  4. The Top
  5. Faith
  6. Wish
  7. The Head On The Door
  8. Bloodflowers
  9. Three Imaginary Boys
  10. Seventeen Seconds
  11. Wild Mood Swings
  12. The Cure
  13. 4:13 Dream

The Top gets a bad press, great album as far as I’m concerned.

#13

The flawless:
Disintegration, Wish, Pornography, Faith, Head on the Door, Seventeen Seconds

The great-but-by-Cure-standards-merely-good:
Bloodflowers, KMKMKM, Boys Don’t Cry*, Japanese Whispers**

The alright-but-by-Cure-standards-a-bit-mediocre/disappointing/frustrating:
The Top, Wild Mood Swings, The Cure, 4:13 Dream

*In an act of shameless revisionism, I’m removing Three Imaginary Boys from their discography and replacing it with the Boys Don’t Cry compilation, and there’s nothing you can do about it. The BDC repackaging is an infinitely better album than 3IB.
**You weren’t able to stop me from doing the BDC switcheroo, so how you going to stop me from throwing the Japanese Whispers comp into the mix? Come to think of it, I’ve half a mind to chuck in Standing on a Beach as well — amongst the flawless albums, of course.

#14
  1. Seventeen Seconds
  2. Faith
  3. Pornography
  4. Disintegration
  5. Head on the Door
  6. Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
  7. The Top
  8. Three Imaginary Boys
  9. Wish

Then it gets a bit patchy from there. Love Join the Dots and Japanese Whispers. Concert and Paris are great live albums.

#15

And don’t forget Join the Dots!

#16
  1. KM3
  2. Head on the Door
  3. Pornography
  4. Faith
  5. Japanese Whispers
  6. Disintegration
  7. Seventeen Seconds
    ~ Everything Else

As a youth, Pornography was my favourite by miles but over the years I’ve come round to the more poppy way of thinking.

Looking forward to the gig next month. Somehow I’ve never seen them live before although I distinctly remember all my mates going to see them at the Playhouse in the mid 90s and I’ve no idea why I didn’t.

#17

Unsurprisingly, broadly similar to mine - nice revisionism btw…

  1. Disintegration
  2. Pronography
  3. Wish
  4. Seventeen Seconds
  5. Faith
  6. Three Imaginary Boys
  7. Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
  8. The Head On The Door
  9. The Top
  10. Bloodflowers
  11. 4:13 Dream
  12. Wild Mood Swings
  13. The Cure
#18

Join the Dots obviously has a whole heap of great tracks — some of my fave Cure songs, in fact (Exploding Boy, Burn, Halo) — but by virtue of being a comprehensive collection of b-sides and marginalia, it also has a bit of guff.

Presence of guff always drags an album down in my rating system, so JTD would sit somewhere between the middle and the bottom category for me.

#19

I find it’s only really the alternate versions and remixes and the like that are somewhat guffy. The rest of the stuff on JTD highlights just how good they were for about 15 years that none of that stuff made it onto the albums.

#20

yeah, probably more mid-category than bottom. A good 3/4 of the songs are solid, with half of those being excellent.