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The Cure

ARTIST · GOTHIC / ALTERNATIVE

The Cure

Spiderweb guitars, lipstick smears, and emotional weather systems spanning sorrow and Saturday-night sparkle.

  • Gothic rock
  • Alternative rock

Updated

Biography

The Cure made mood its instrument, stretching from claustrophobic post-punk to candy-coloured singles without losing identity.

Robert Smith’s layered guitar tones—chorus, flanger, delay—became a blueprint for alternative guitarists worldwide.

Radio directors still lean on their catalogue when bridging melancholy night shows and sunnier daytime blocks.

Remastered streaming exposes synthetic drums, fret noise, and bass melodies that anchor even the most ornate arrangements.

Robert Smith, Michael Dempsey, and Lol Tolhurst began playing in Crawley as Easy Cure before shortening the name. The first albums, Three Imaginary Boys (1979), Seventeen Seconds (1980), Faith (1981), and Pornography (1982), explored a bleak, guitar-and-bass-led post-punk sound that became the foundation of gothic rock.

The Head on the Door (1985) and Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (1987) brought pop singles like In Between Days and Just Like Heaven, and Disintegration (1989) brought a lush, melancholy sound. Wish (1992) included Friday I’m in Love. Smith’s smeared lipstick and tangled hair became one of rock’s great images.

The Cure: recent news, 2020–2026

  1. 2022 The Lost World Tour crossed Europe and North America, with the band playing new songs.
  2. 2024 Songs of a Lost World, the first Cure album in 16 years, was released on 1 November.
  3. 2025 The band returned to Rockfield Studios in Wales in March to record a follow-up, and a concert film of the tour was prepared for release.
  4. 2026 A summer tour of European festivals and UK, Irish, and German headline shows was announced.

Rumors and plans

Robert Smith has said in interviews that the follow-up material is dark in tone and that a separate, more pop-minded record is also possible. No release dates have been confirmed.

Interesting facts about The Cure

  • 01 English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1978.
  • 02 Landmark albums include Disintegration (1989) and Wish (1992).
  • 03 Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019.
  • 04 The band was called Easy Cure at first.
  • 05 Disintegration (1989) is widely cited as a high point of the band’s career.

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