The Cure – The Head on the Door [180g Vinyl LP]

The Cure – The Head on the Door [180g Vinyl LP]

Details

• Format: Vinyl LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Stereo
• Catalogue Number: FIXH 11
• Barcode: 042282723116
• Genre: Alternative Rock / New Wave / Post-Punk / Indie Rock
• Label: Fiction Records / Polydor
• Originally Released: 26 August 1985
• Reissue Released: 9 September 2016
• Pressing: 180 Gram Vinyl
• Condition: New & Sealed

Description

The Head on the Door is the sixth studio album by The Cure — Robert Smith (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Simon Gallup (bass), Porl Thompson (guitar, keyboards), Boris Williams (drums) and Lol Tolhurst (keyboards) — originally released on 26 August 1985 on Fiction Records. Recorded at AIR Studios in London and Genetic Studios in Reading, and produced by Robert Smith, David M. Allen and (on selected tracks) Howard Gray, it marked a decisive turning point in the band's career: the first Cure album composed entirely by Smith alone, the first to feature the fully settled quintet lineup that would define the band's commercial peak, and the record that broke them in America for the first time. In the UK it reached number seven on the Albums Chart — their highest position to that point — and their US breakthrough followed, with the album entering the Billboard 200 and establishing a foothold that Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (1987) would build upon considerably.

The album is defined above all by its stylistic range, deployed with a confidence and economy that eluded the band's more ambitious earlier records. Smith had made a conscious decision to write each track in a different style, and the result is an album that moves through flamenco-influenced guitar pop ("The Blood", with its castanets and Spanish guitar figure), Eastern-tinged minimalism ("Kyoto Song"), driving rock ("Push", with its extended building introduction), the woozy, horn-inflected balladry of "A Night Like This", and the euphoric closer "Sinking" — all bound together by Smith's voice and the band's collective identity. The production, cleaner and more direct than any previous Cure record, gave the album a radio accessibility that translated immediately into commercial success without the sense of compromise that sometimes accompanies such crossovers.

The album spawned two of the band's defining singles. "In Between Days" — its acoustic guitar figure and tumbling verse melody among the most immediately recognisable things Smith ever wrote — reached number fifteen on the UK Singles Chart and gave the band their first significant US alternative radio play. "Close to Me" — built around a claustrophobic funk groove, horn section and one of pop's most distinctive music videos, directed by Tim Pope and shot inside a wardrobe tumbling off a cliff — reached number twenty-four in the UK and became an enduring fan favourite. Both singles demonstrated the album's central achievement: the ability to be simultaneously strange and completely accessible, art-pop that didn't require any qualification.

This 2016 reissue on Fiction Records / Polydor, remastered by Robert Smith, presents the complete 10-track album on 180 gram vinyl, housed in a replica of the original artwork sleeve with a printed lyric and credits inner sleeve and a digital download voucher. Made in the EU.

Tracklist

Side A

1. In Between Days
2. Kyoto Song
3. The Blood
4. Six Different Ways
5. Push

Side B

1. The Baby Screams
2. Close to Me
3. A Night Like This
4. Screw
5. Sinking

Credits

• Robert Smith – Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals
• Simon Gallup – Bass
• Porl Thompson – Guitar, Keyboards
• Boris Williams – Drums, Percussion
• Lol Tolhurst – Keyboards
• Robert Smith & David M. Allen – Producers
• Howard Gray – Producer (selected tracks)
• Robert Smith – Remastering (2016)
• Label – Fiction Records / Polydor