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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Are you telling me you don't already own this ?, 3 Jul 2002
This album caused quite a stir within the music media when it was released (1987). Just two years earlier The Cure had finally broken through as a major commercial act, following six years of trying their best not to, and the prospect of a double album (as was the form it's original vinyl release took) from these unexpected megastars got more than a few people quite excited.All their expectations were fulfilled, the album containing 4 bona fide hit singles and 13 other classics, many of which could have been suitable choices for singles. The album kicks off with The Kiss, a heavy wah-wah driven track - the full 6:17 of wild guitar (with few repeating phrases) being performed in one take by vocalist Robert Smith rather than guitarist Porl Thompson, which surprised many given Porl's reputation as the "solo" guitarist out of what was a 2-guitar line up (Smith and Thompson). After this, we move into Catch, a mediterranean style piece of pop which is acknowledged by most Cure fans as being one of their greatest singles. The opening two tracks set the pace for the rest of the album really. The 17 songs pretty much go from rock/sort-of psychedelic to pop back to rock/sort-of psychedelic back to pop, and so on throughout the album. This is a concept that the band employed years later for Wild Mood Swings (1996), however on that particular album it doesn't really work simply because most of the songs just aren't strong enough to carry it off. On Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me it works brilliantly though. Like I said, most of the songs could have been singles, and of the songs that couldn't (i.e. the rockier or sort-of psychedelic stuff) are all absolute classics as well, so there aren't any problems with mixing and matching styles. I think the main reason it works so well is because it was unexpected that they would do this, whereas with Wild Mood Swings they made quite a contrite effort to actively do the same thing, even suggesting in interviews that this was their goal. A quick run through of the songs reveals rocky stuff such as The Kiss, Torture, All I Want, Shiver And Shake and Fight (heavily inspired by Led Zeppelin's Kashmir - blame Porl Thompson who went on to play with Page and Plant !!), the pure guitar pop of Catch, Why Can't I Be You, How Beautiful You Are, Just Like Heaven, Hot Hot Hot, The Perfect Girl, and psychedelic trancey stuff like One More Time, A Thousand Hours, The Snakepit, and the middle-eastern flavoured If Only Tonight We Could Sleep (very Kula Shaker - except about 10 years before they did it!!) This is the album where Smith's lyrics really started to become extremely sharp and polished, and his lyrics have been some of the best in the world from this point onwards (although he sings way too much about relationships for my tastes - his subject matter is ocassionally a bit limited). His voice really started to take on a maturity in that his singing here is the best it had ever been up to this point, although he still manages to put on the weirdest interpretation of a soul singer on Hot Hot Hot (don't worry, it actually works - it's not as bad as it sounds, in fact it's quite good !) This is an absolute classic album and at 17 songs in length (72 minutes running time) is a great value purchase that any self-respecting guitar music fan (of the indie/alternative variety of course) must have in his or her collection. I cannot recommend this album any higher.
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