The Cure The Head on the Door released

The Head on the Door The Cure

Released: August 30, 1985 Peak: 59 US, 7 UK, -- CN, 6 AU Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 0.5 US, 0.1 UK, 0.7 world (includes US and UK) Genre: goth rock

Tracks: Song Title [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) In Between Days (Without You) [2:57] (7/15/85, 99 BB, 1 CO, 15 UK, 10 DF) Kyoto Song [4:16] The Blood [3:43] Six Different Ways [3:18] Push [4:31] The Baby Screams [3:44] Close to Me [3:23] (9/9/85, 97 BB, 64 CB, 1 CO, 13 UK, 12 DF) A Night Like This [4:16] (17 CO) Screw [2:38] Sinking [4:57] All songs written by Robert Smith. Total Running Time: 37:46 The Players: Robert Smith (vocals, guitar, keyboards) Porl Thompson (guitar) Simon Gallup (bass, keyboards) Lol Tolhurst (keyboards) Boris Williams (drums, percussion)

Rating: 4.010 out of 5.00 (average of 28 ratings) Quotable: “The Head on the Door is the first moment when sunshine first entered the dungeon.” – Tom Moon, 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

The Early Years The Cure formed in England in 1976. They released five albums from 1979 to 1984 with the latter two reaching the top-10 in the UK. The group also landed nine top-50 songs in the UK during that time. While they made little chart headway in the United States, songs like “Boys Don’t Cry,” “Let’s Go to Bed,” and “The Lovecats” were gaining stamina at college radio. The Cure’s sixth album, The Head on the Door, “is the first moment when sunshine first entered the dungeon.” TM The album “followed a series of grim dirge records, among them the critically acclaimed Pornography (1982) and The Top (1984). These earned the British five-piece a devoted following of mascara-wearing goth youth, and a one-way ticket to the rock-cliché pasture.” TM Aware of the latter, frontman Robert Smith “set out to broaden the group’s palette.” TM A New Sound The Cure “ended up changing their musical direction rather radically. While the band always had a pop element in their sound…The Head on the Door is where they become a hitmaking machine.” AM “Robert Smith figured out how to make gloom and doom danceable and popular to both alternative and mainstream rock audiences. It was a feat the band managed to pull off for many years afterward, but never as concisely or as impressively as they did here.” AM The Head on the Door was the first album where all the songs were written exclusively by Robert Smtih. WK He was inspired by Siouxsie and the Banshees’ Kaleidoscope and the Human League’s Dare! WK “He copped some of the bouncy synthesizer cues then powering New Wave pop. He wrote short songs and didn’t shy away from singable refrains. He and the rhythm section generated irresistible – and surprisingly funky – grooves, and augmented them with flamenco guitar and other exotica. So as not to completely startle the faithful, he sang this more buoyant stuff in the same distraught voice that had been the Cure’s most identifiable trademark. And he retained some of the despairing narratives of mope music.” TM New Lineup Also significant in changing the band’s sound was a new lineup. After 1984’s The Top, Andy Anderson and Phil Thornalley were jettisoned from the band and Boris Williams, the former drummer with the Thompson Twins, was added. Simon Gallup and Porl Thompson returned to the fold after a few years’ absence. Modern Rock Breakthrough The Head on the Door was significant for unleashing a couple of “modern rock radio staples.” AM “The opening track and first single, Inbetween Days, was compared to New Order’s material.” WK The song “recasts existential torment in grabby Eurobeat trappings.” TM That song and Close to Me featured “shiny, sleek production and laser-sharp melodies.” AM and “inspired videos had them in heavy rotation on MTV.” AM Critics described the latter as a “disco thing.” WK The album’s title came from a lyric in “Close to Me.” Other Songs “The rest of the record didn’t suffer for hooks and inventive arrangements either, making even the gloomiest songs like Screw and Kyoto Song sound radio-ready.” AM The latter “contains an oriental hook” WK while elsewhere on the album “The Blood is playing in a flamenco style” WK with “flamenco guitars and castanets.” AM It was because of the new lineup and Smith’s new approach to writing that the band were able to take “swings at bubbly styles [such as in ‘The Blood’] it couldn’t have pulled off before.” TM “The lengthy and majestic intro to Push, the swirling vocals on The Baby Screams) give the album a musical depth previous efforts lacked. All without sacrificing an ounce of the emotion of the past, which songs as quietly desperate as A Night Like This and Sinking illustrate.” AM The latter “was reminiscent of the band’s Faith era.” WK “The piano tune of Six Different Ways had been previously used by Smith during his tenure with Siouxsie and the Banshees for the single ‘Swimming Horses.’” WK Notes: In 2006, a deluxe edition added a second disc of 18 odds and ends, from home demo instrumentals, live bootleg recordings, and studio demos of unreleased songs.

Reviews: AM AllMusic.com review by Tim Sendra TM Tom Moon (2008). 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. Workman Publishing Company, Inc.: New York, NY. Pages 198-9. WK Wikipedia Related DMDB Links: First posted 7/19/2008; last updated 8/26/2026.