The Cure songs Robert Smith thought would stand the test of time
Most bands face the challenge of crafting deep cuts. However, unlike most bands, even The Cure‘s more obscure songs seem to pull you in with ease, captivating and charming effortlessly, not just because of their simplicity but also because of Robert Smith’s exceptional talent. Smith consistently shunned shortcuts in his music, making sure that The Cure became the defining band of their generation.
In today’s eclectic landscape, The Cure is more important than ever. In the early days, their intrigue stemmed from Smith’s interest in the macabre and how that coalesced with catchy, infectious melodies. Like many of his contemporaries, like Kate Bush and Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure’s music was as dark as it was enticing, ensuring the darkest corners of the soul were ignited with passion and validation.
Despite the odd diversion here and there, The Cure stand as one of the most consistent bands in history, with Smith’s dark and alluring world infiltrating almost all of his compositions and albums. Despite many claiming Pornography marked the last of Smith’s venture into gothic sensibilities, this can be found in many records that followed, including the fascinatingly brilliant Disintegration.
Not only did Disintegration present an enhanced version of Smith’s ability to dig deep into the human psyche as he explored themes of childhood, love, loss, grief, and disillusionment with oneself and others, but it uprooted the significance of conceptless concept albums as each song blurred into another, resulting in a layered and visceral listening experience. With Disintegration, Smith was not only adept at providing timeless rock songs, but he also used various other genres to create the perfect whirlwind of emotion.
Therefore, in the minds of many music lovers across the globe, The Cure became one of the timeless bands because of its multifaceted dreamscapes and subsequent validation of the soul’s gloomiest aspects. This is incidentally what often makes ‘Lovesong’ resonate just as deeply as ‘A Letter To Elise’ and what makes ‘Friday I’m In Love’ as intriguing and even enigmatic as ‘Jupiter Crash’. It’s all a part of The Cure’s endlessly exciting realm of discovery.
According to Smith, however, only a handful of songs have given him the same sense of timelessness. Although he remains proud of many of his compositions and relates to every single one as much as he identifies with varying parts of himself, there are some that he instantly knew would withstand the tests of time. The first of these he mentioned was ‘Faith’.
“[It] probably will never be dislodged from the place it occupies in my heart. For what it meant at the time,” he told Spin.
As Smith sought to break free from his religious disillusionment growing up, the album Faith represented everything the frontman grappled with while being a part of an intensely religious household. The titular track brought it all together in one perfect moment of poignant reckoning. He told the Chicago Tribune in 1992: “I don’t think I’ll ever write a song that’ll ever move me as much as ‘Faith’, that’ll change my life as much as that song did, or encapsulate a period of my life as well as that one does.”
Although ‘Faith’ will likely always be his personal forerunner, he also felt a similar sense of significance with ‘Forest’ and ‘Just Like Heaven’, albeit for varying reasons. While ‘Forest’ delights with its delicate deliberation with a build-up that slowly but firmly draws you in, ‘Just Like Heaven’ immediately grips with its thunderous rhythms before Smith’s charming vocals take you on an unforgettable journey.
For this reason, he likened ‘Just Like Heaven’ to sitting on “the other side of the coin” to ‘Forest’. He said, “I knew when we did that that that would be played on the radio in like twenty years.”
