Artist

The Cure

Crawley, United Kingdom • Formed 1977

The Cure is a music group from Crawley, United Kingdom, active since 1977. Their discography on Gatefold includes 24 records.

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Albums tracked

1,395

In collections

1977

Since

Biography

The Cure are an English gothic rock band formed in Crawley in 1976 by Robert Smith (vocals, guitar) and Lol Tolhurst (drums). The band’s current lineup consists of Smith, Simon Gallup (bass), Roger O'Donnell (keyboards), Perry Bamonte (guitar and keyboards), Jason Cooper (drums), and Reeves Gabrels (guitar). Smith has been the sole constant member throughout the group’s history, while Gallup has appeared on all but two of the band’s studio albums.

The Arc of The Cure

The pivots — what forced The Cure to reinvent.

The Cold Trilogy
After the jittery post-punk of the debut, Smith decided he wanted to make music that was completely devoid of color. Seventeen Seconds, Faith, and Pornography were the result of a band retreating into grey-walled studios and heavy drug use to create something genuinely suffocating. Simon Gallup's arrival brought that thick, chorused bass style that redefined their entire architecture. By the time they finished Pornography, the band was essentially a corpse, falling apart from the internal pressure of making a record that sounded like the end of the world.
The Technicolor Pivot
Smith escaped the gloom by leaning into absolute absurdity with 'The Lovecats' and 'The Walk,' proving he could write a pop hook better than most of the New Romantics. This era was defined by the use of the Oberheim OB-Xa and a total embrace of the music video as a medium for his weird, disheveled persona. It wasn't a sellout move; it was a survival tactic that expanded their vocabulary from funeral dirges to psychedelic pop. This shift set the stage for The Head on the Door, where they finally learned how to be a massive pop band without losing the dark undercurrent.
The Stadium Goth Peak
Disintegration was the result of Smith turning 30 and panicking that he hadn't made his masterpiece yet. He pushed the band back into a slow, dripping atmosphere, using the ARP Solina String Ensemble and layers of rain-soaked effects to create a record that the label initially called 'commercial suicide.' Instead, it became their biggest seller, proving that massive audiences actually wanted to hear a six-minute song about regret. This was the moment they found the perfect balance between the claustrophobia of the early years and the melodic clarity of their pop phase.

Influences

Nick Drake — The band’s name was lifted directly from the lyrics of Drake's 'Time Has Told Me.' You hear it in the finger-picked acoustic fragility of 'The Exploding Boy' and Smith's obsession with autumnal, isolated songwriting. It’s the DNA of their quietest moments.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience — Smith has cited Hendrix as his first guitar hero and even covered 'Foxy Lady' on the debut record. You can hear the influence in his use of heavy modulation and the way he treats the guitar as a textural wash rather than just a riff machine. The guy is a psychedelic player at heart.
David Bowie — The Cure spent their formative years watching Bowie's chameleonic shifts, and Smith has specifically pointed to Low as a blueprint for their atmosphere. The cold, mechanical synth work on Seventeen Seconds is a direct descendant of the Berlin Trilogy. It taught them that you could be a pop star and a total weirdo simultaneously.
Siouxsie and the Banshees — Smith actually pulled double duty as the Banshees' guitarist for a stretch, and the influence was a two-way street. The jagged, tribal drumming and flanged-out guitar lines on 'A Forest' owe everything to the post-punk groundwork Siouxsie laid down. He learned how to command a stage by standing in their shadows.
The Velvet Underground — The band covered 'All Tomorrow's Parties' early on and took the Velvets' lesson of repetition to heart. The long, droning intros on Disintegration are pure Lou Reed worship. They understood that if you hold a simple, dark mood long enough, it becomes hypnotic.