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It doesn't take long listening to this new album to learn that Robert Smith, leader and vocalist of the Cure, is still not completely happy with life. Lost kicks off with Smith wailing 'I can't find myself' to the backdrop of a strumming guitar. As Smith mentions in the interview segments available to purchasers of the CD via the web, love and loss are, and always have been, primary concerns of music by the Cure. Of note, however, unlike predecessor Bloodflowers, The Cure does eventually lighten up to deliver tuneful Pop and even a clutch of songs representing the danceable side of the Cure's music. Robert Smith says that this album is self-titled to recognize that it might be the definitive Cure album. If not necessarily the definitive (it is difficult to summarize 20 years of recording in 11 songs stretched over 50 minutes), the album does live up to providing a quick taste of many facets of the musical blend that does define the Cure. Lost and Labyrinth rage and roar with dark vocals and ringing guitars but the 4th track, the current single The End Of the World, is in a decided Pop vein. It is this Pop sensibility that has been evident in most of the classic Cure hits through the years from the debut single Killing An Arab through Friday I'm In Love. On the new album the trio of alt.end, (I Don't Know What's Going) On and Taking Off proved Robert Smith would still like to take the band for a spin out on the dancefloor. Taking Off is particularly reminiscent of the sound of the classic Just Like Heaven, one of the Cure's 18 charted Dance hits in the U.S. During interviews following the release of Bloodflowers in 2000, Robert Smith insisted that he would bring the Cure to an end as he wanted to do something different at age 40. In interview bits accompanying this album he says that he was irresistibly drawn back to the group partially because it is just so much fun. That is a key to the secret behind the ongoing popularity and importance of the Cure's music. Rarely has a band ever been able to make often dark, sometimes brooding music be consistently fun. The 50 minutes of The Cure is an enjoyable listen. A beat you can dance to, Pop melodies, and emotional catharsis. What more would we want?
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