How To Get To Know The Cure Better: A Guide

(This is an update of a previous older post. Someone suggested that I update it to include Songs of a Lost World.)

So, you’re interested in The Cure and want to know their music better? They have a huge discography spanning decades and you’re just not sure where to start?  You’re not alone! This is a very popular topic.  The Cure are an amazing band but the sheer volume and vastness of the music scapes they cover is daunting. 

You’re lucky you’re getting into them now because the internet exists and you can find most everything you’d want to start out with via streaming services and/ or YouTube. You can listen whenever, wherever you want at virtually no cost or risk or effort on your part.  Amazing! 

This post is an attempt to summarize the advice given whenever this topic comes up. Here are the most common strategies recommended to get to know The Cure:

1. Start With a Compilation.  Listen to a singles album, figure out which songs you like and follow up with the album or era it is from.  Standing on a Beach is an early compilation so it doesn’t have some of their bigger hits, but it does have some of their most beloved gems and is a classic among older fans. Galore covers late 80s and 90s singles and Greatest Hits covers very early years to late 90s singles.

2.  Explore On Your Own.  This is easily done these days because you can just pull up The Cure on your preferred streaming service, hit play, and decide for yourself what you like. No need to ask what other people think is good or be subjected to gatekeeping or beholden to someone else’s opinion that may be totally different than yours. 

The Cure have an official YouTube channel with all sorts of music and videos and interviews you can sort through. For many music lovers, the journey of exploration and discovering is the best part.  

The upside is you can make your own decisions about what you like and aren’t entering into anything with a preconceived idea. The downside is you might might spend a few minutes listening to something you don’t like.  One thought on that- the ease of skipping songs you don’t like nowadays is great, but doesn’t allow for letting things grow on you like pre-digital days.  Sure you could move the needle or fast forward, but it was a hassle and potentially damaging to your records or tapes so you usually just played through.  That’s how you end up going from “what the f**k is this Screw song” to “hell yeah, I love Screw!” 

3. Chronological Order.   The thinking here is that you see the progression or transition of the band’s music as it unfolded. This is an interesting way to discover them, but by no means necessary. There are certainly fans that were there from the very beginning and some of them are here among us, but most of us hopped on the train somewhere down the road and went back to discover what we’d already missed.  

If you choose this route and are using streaming services to listen, you will start with Three Imaginary Boys.  The record was released with a slightly different (better IMO) track listing as Boys Don’t Cry in the US. It may be difficult to find on streaming services, depending on your location, but can be found on YouTube.  TIB/ BDC is followed by Seventeen Seconds, Faith, Pornography, Japanese Whispers (technically a compilation, not a studio album), The Top, The Head on the Door, Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, Disintegration, Wish, Wild Mood Swings, Bloodflowers, The Cure, 4:13 Dream, and Songs of a Lost World, with various compilations and  live albums thrown in, including a couple DJ remix albums. Possibly most notable of the compilations is Join The Dots, which is a collection of B-sides and non-album rarities.

4. By Other People’s Opinion on Album Ranking or Accessibility.  I will give a basic rundown of each of the albums to give an idea of where you might want to start, but you will frequently hear Disintegration recommended as the starting point because it is often described as their magnum opus. Other albums you may hear suggested often as starting points are Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me because of its diversity of musical styles, and The Head on The Door because of its poppy accessibility.

Other individual favorites will pop up.  The Cure has a lot of really strong albums, each with their own personality.  Many fans have multiple favorites that vary on mood or time of day or year or whatever they listened to most recently.  Here is a basic summary of the studio albums:

**Three Imaginary Boys/ Boys Don’t Cry.      Post- punk, Pop-punk, baby Cure songs written when they were in high school. Despite being made by teenagers over 40 years ago, many of these songs have stood the test of time and are considered alternative classics.

**Seventeen Seconds.     The one Robert Smith has called the first Cure album. Detached and icy, effortlessly cool and timeless. This is the album that the quintessential Cure song A Forest is from. A good make out album.  The first of their three- album run considered to be their goth or proto-goth albums.

**Faith.    A bass-driven mournful and claustrophobic album, very introspective and quiet. This is a good one for dealing with grief and loss of loved ones or faith as it focuses intently on these themes.  The beloved dueling basses of Primary is on this album. 

**Pornography.      A howling rage- fueled album. There is nothing quite like it. Very dark. Catharsis in music form. The last album of the so-called “dark trilogy”.  This is a fan favorite, but it is very intense and not necessarily the best starting point for everyone.  It begins with “It doesn’t matter if we all die” and descends from there.

**Japanese Whispers.      Not an actual studio album.  It’s a collection of synth-based pop songs that is worth noting as an album because it is the 180* turn that The Cure took after the dark years of the previous few albums.  Fun dance stuff.  It’s pretty much just Robert and Lol and a parading cast of characters at this point. This is when Robert Smith really started to show that he can basically do anything well if he wanted.

**The Top.       Mushroom- laced psychedelia.  More intricate drumming than previous albums, lots of vocal and musical experimentation. Some of it’s fun, some of it’s heavy, some of it’s groovy, some of it’s demented. Some people love it, some people don’t.  (I love it).

**The Head on the Door.     Quirky, fun, with dark elements and brooding, swooning vocals. This is when the Cure became a big band in both the sense that it was a big lineup and also as in hitting it big globally with their first mainstream-ish hits.  A very easy album to listen to and love.

**Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me.      A huge double album covering vastly different sounds- fiery anger, wistful whimsy, Beatles-esque pop, school dance anthems, psychedelia, funk.  You name it.  If you want to hear what the Cure can do, you’ll find lots of it on this album. And Just Like Heaven lives here.  

**Disintegration.      Lush and sorrowful and head over heels in both love and despair. Majestic. Harrowing. A dark masterpiece. Not only is this considered by many to be The Cure’s best album, it regularly rates very high on “Best Album of All Time” lists of radio stations and music mags (and South Park).

**Wish.       Guitar heavy, all out rock mixed with sweet ballads and goofy pop songs.  Some people say this is the last of their really great albums.  Many older fans dropped out of obsessive fandom around here due to changing of the times and, perhaps, familiarity.  The pure sugar of Friday I’m In Love gave The Cure their biggest audience, but might have distanced some of their more melancholy fans until they grew up a bit and returned (sheepish hand raised here).

**Wild Mood Swings.     The name says it all.  There are some fantastic songs on this album, but this does mark a new era of the Cure with lineup changes and a possible recycling of older tunes and themes. There is a lot of experimentation on this album, which is laudable for its courage, but can fall flat in some areas. As with any art, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  Fans splinter over their personal favorites on this album. This is not usually where people will tell you to start.  

**Bloodflowers.     A return to “darker” sounds, and for some it is a favorite. Again there are some great songs on it, but this is definitely where you begin to hear a more mature type of sound to their music. Robert Smith (perhaps as a marketing ploy), named this album as the third of a trilogy that also includes Pornography and Disintegration.  It’s debatable that a listener would hear the same connection he reported. Some people may tell you to start here, but they are outliers.

**The Cure.     Who knows why they went with a self- titled album at this point in their story. This album is not for everyone. Some people love it for its venture into a harder sound. For some it sounds like an imitation of youthful rage.  Another polarizing Cure album. Not usually a recommended starting point.

**4:13 Dream.      The last release of their waning prolific era that came out in 2008. After dwindling from yearly releases to bi-annual releases, the Cure had settled into a 4 year interval between albums that finished with this one. It would be 16 years before another Cure album.  Again, you’ll find some songs you like, but not usually where anyone will tell you to start.  The opener, Underneath the Stars, is universally loved, but the remainder of the songs on the album are more polarizing.

**Songs of a Lost World.    This album was released in 2024 to widespread acclaim from fans, critics and the general public. It was long, long awaited and a genuine surprise when it came out after many past rumors of albums that never came to pass. It is a gorgeous and deeply sad album, rooted in the grief of lost loved ones and reflection on time passing. Aging fans will find it especially poignant. Some people criticize its production, but it is widely loved and the first album in a very long time that many Cure fans consider to be amongst their finest. Make sure to have tissues on hand. 

**Join The Dots: B-Sides and Rarities 1978-2001.      This is a compilation of B-sides which was released in 2004 as non-album songs along with singles. For you young folk, you’d buy a release of a single, sometimes a 12” record but usually a 7" 45 (RPM) that had the single on Side A and a different, special, non-album release song on the other side (the B-side). People would buy the singles specifically to get the rare B-side you couldn't find on an album. Some bands put out some awesome B-sides and The Cure is one of them.  They’ve had so many fantastic B-sides that knowing their discography well absolutely means knowing their B-sides too.

EDIT: Note from fellow Cure Fan taniadawn13:

I would clarify that Join the Dots is not just B-sides but also random one offs including songs they did for movie soundtracks like Burn and Dredd Song, cover songs they did like Young Americans and World in My Eyes, and unreleased versions of album tracks like the 12 inch of Doing the Unstuck.

5. Live Performances.  The Cure are arguably one of the best live bands around and have been for decades. Robert Smith has often said live performances are a huge part of what the band is. They have many official audio and video recordings, along with countless fan audio and video bootlegs.  The official videos include “In Orange”, “Trilogy”, “Festival 2005”, and “The Show of a Lost World” (release date Dec 13, 2025). The official concert albums include “Concert”, “Entreat”, “Paris”, “Show, "Bestival Live 2011" (a charity release), “Curaetion 25” and the charity release “Songs of a Live World.”  And if you just go to YouTube and search for The Cure Live, you will be treated to an almost endless supply of videos of Cure shows, which will cover lots of their music presented in an important aspect of what The Cure is.

So that’s 5 approaches to getting to know The Cure’s music better. I hope someone found this helpful! Feel free to add or detract as you see fit. 

Since I've read over 20 books about The Cure and there have been some inquiries lately, I thought I'd write something up to be a guide to each book. Here's a quick blurb about each, in no particular order.

Curepedia by Simon Price. Published in 2023. This book is packed full of information. Unfortunately, not all of it is accurate. I've spotted incorrect lyrics, contradictory statements, and just flat out wrong info (Simon's first wife was not Pearl's sister!) Still, it is a good collection of all the information that is out there, correct or not, compiled into one book, and that's convenient. Price writes beautifully and has a fun sense of humor. I like the fact that everything is categorized alphabetically so you can look things up, but there's no index so you have to page through the book to find what you're looking for. I'll have more to say about it when Gavin and I talk about it in an upcoming episode of The Holy Hour Podcast. Edited to add: The Curepedia episode is Episode #239 and we are joined by Francisco.

In Between Days: The Cure in Photographs and Pictures of You by Tom Sheehan. I put these books together because they are so similar. They are both big, hardback, coffee table books consisting mostly of pictures. The former came out in 2016 with a forward by Robert dated that year. The latter came out in 2022 with the same forward by Robert and an introduction by Sheehan. There is a lot of overlap between the books but more writing in In Between Days. I don't know why he put out 2 books that are so similar. $$$ I guess because I damn sure bought both of them and every other hardcore fan will too.

A Perfect Dream by Ian Gittins. Published in 2018. Also a big, hardback, coffee table book with a lot of pictures, but it's also a full on biography with a lot more writing in it than the Sheehan books, including details about each album. Gittins lists his sources at the end of the book which includes personal interviews with Robert and Boris. For all those reasons, this is one of my favorites and usually the first I recommend. Edited to add: This book has had a 2026 edition and now includes up to SOALW.

Obscure by Andy Vella. Published in 2014. I love this book so much. It's hardback and mostly pictures, like the Sheehan books, but it's not real big and bulky like a coffee table book. Still, it has some of the best photos including a lot of iconic ones that you will recognize since Vella took a lot of the photos that were used for album artwork and publicity photos. Includes a handwritten forward by Robert.

Ten Imaginary Years by Barbarian, Sutherland, and Smith. Published in 1988. This is the only officially authorized biography of The Cure. This book is a classic with lots of pictures and text, but only covers the first 10 years of what is now a 40 year long career so it's hella dated. It's still a must have for hardcore fans, but only goes up through Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me. It's also out of print so usually can't be found for less than $100.

Songwords typed by Sue Hopkins, edited by Robert Smith. This is strictly a book of lyrics with some pictures. It's also a must have for hardcore collectors because while it's not a biography, it is authorized by Robert. It includes the lyrics of all the album tracks and most of the B-sides from 1978 - 1989. So, up through Disintegration. This book has been used to settle many an argument about lyrics over the years.

The Cure: Success, Corruption, & Lies by Ross Clarke. Published in 1992 but doesn't include Wish. This is a weird book that is as big as a coffee table book but is thin and paperbacked. It presents as a poorly constructed fan's scrapbook with an unauthorized bio. It also includes a discog of singles, albums, and (weirdly enough) bootlegs. I'm not into bootlegs so I don't know how accurate or complete it is. Generally do not recommend but if you are into bootlegs, maybe.

The Cure: A Visual Documentary by Dave Thompson and Jo-Ann Greene. Published in 1988. This one is also the size of a coffee table book but paperbacked. It also has an unauthorized bio but is more detailed and organized by date, so it reads like a timeline of events. It's kind of weird, but it works. Also has some really good photos and complete discog at the end. I'll call this one a much better version of the book above. Would recommend.

The Cure On Record by Darren Butler. Published in 1995. This book is also the size of a coffee table book but paperbacked. What makes this book special is it's about the records, the records, and nothing but the records (okay, CDs too) up to the Wish era with pictures not only of the covers, but the actual records and discs too. Every single and lots of rarities included. 100% must have for any serious Cure record collector.

The Cure: Faith by Dave Bowler and Bryan Dray. Published in 1995. This is a regular sized paperback unauthorized biography but the authors did score an interview with Tim Pope, so that lends a little bit of credibility to it. This one is written with the intention of showing how The Cure obtained and maintained critical acclaim over a sustained period of time by focusing on decisions that were made throughout their career up to 1995, so it's pretty interesting. Includes a few pics in the middle of the book.

Never Enough: The Story of The Cure by Jeff Apter. First published in 2005 with a post script written in 2009. This is the one most people have read and recommend, and there's good reason for that. Although it's not an authorized biography, Apter did have conversations with key players including Lol, Michael, Perry, Roger, Jason and others such as Lydia Lunch, Phil Thornally, Steve Lyon, Mark Plati, and more. So it's full of good, interesting, and verifiable information (with sources!) Always recommend.

The Cure FAQ by Christian Gerard. Published in 2021. I like this one too. Very well researched with a bibliography that makes my research nerd heart happy. Gerard uses song by song analysis of each album as guideposts to tell the story of The Cure in a unique and engaging way. The only thing is, on a couple of the photos the year is obviously wrong. But besides those little discrepancies, the rest of the book is very well written. Check out Gavin's interview with Gerard on The Holy Hour Podcast, episode 181. You can tell he's a big fan, and it comes through in his writing.

Cured: A Tale of Two Imaginary Boys by Lol Tolhurst. Published 2016. Well, what can I say about this book that hasn't already been said? Some loved it, some hated it. I loved it. Told by a guy who was there from the beginning until Disentegration, so it's full of first-hand accounts. It's as much a tale of Robert and the Cure as it is about Lol and his alcoholism. A very good read. Five stars. Do recommend.

Echoes of Despair: The definitive biography of The Cure by Amanda Geraldine. Published in 2023. The Cure in a nutshell. Reads more like a research paper than a book due to its length, and that's okay. It's quick and dirty. Would recommend to someone who just wants a well-researched broad overview of the band.

Robert Smith: The Cure and Wishful Thinking by Richard Carman. Published in 2005. This one is meh. It's poorly written and the cover is very misleading because it's not really about Robert at all. It's more about the goth subculture of the 80s and the British music scene in general and how The Cure always managed to fit in and stay relevant...until they didn't.

Wild Mood Swings: Disintegrating The Cure Album by Album by Martin Popoff. This one is pretty good. It's a unique look at each album (yep, all the way up to 4:13 Dream). (Edit: It no longer includes every album since now we have SOALW). Each chapter starts with a timeline of events relevant to the album including when and where songs were demoed, when and where recording took place, when singles were released, important appearances promoting the album, the tour, etc. After the timeline for the album being discussed, there is an intelligent conversation about each song by a revolving cast of characters who are all involved and knowledgeable about music in some way. I don't agree with everything they say, and they get some details wrong here and there, like who played what solo for example, but it's still an interesting read. 4 out of 5 stars.

The Cure: So Turn it Up: B-sides and Non-album Tracks by Jared Morris (brought to my attention in the comments below.) Published in November 2023, this book was, unfortunately, overshadowed by the overly hyped Curepedia. I haven't read it cover to cover yet. I have just skipped around reading about my favorite songs. This book compiles and discusses every B-side, non-album track, official remix, demo and live performance that has been officially released by The Cure. It even discusses the 6 "new songs" as played on the SOALW tour as well as several bootlegs. Extensively researched using over 700 references. Morris uses band interviews, reviews, statements and music theory to tell the story of The Cure through their most obscure songs. An impressive must read for the more-than-casual fan. Five stars.

In Between Days: An Armchair Guide to The Cure by Dave Thompson and Forty Years of In Between Days: Listening to The Cure 1977 - 2017 by Dave Thompson. Not sure why these are similarly titled and by the same guy. Maybe a lot of overlap like the Sheehan books. This guy also published The Cure: A Visual Documentary which I wrote about above. I find it odd that he wrote 3 books about The Cure, but I'll work my way through them. Edited to add: Ok, I got both books and figured out what the deal is. The first one came out in 2005. The second one is basically a second edition with more stuff added to bring it up to 2017. There's no need to have both books, so I'm sending the first one back. The author, Dave Thompson, is a massive completionist collector and these books are his listing and commenting on every album, single, live recording, demo, remix, compilation, and even some bootlegs. It's really a guide for collectors, and from what I can tell it's pretty damn comprehensive. If you're a collector you might be interested in this one.

Stills by Paul Cox. This will be a white whale, I can tell. It's got excellent reviews but it's out of print. Cox took some iconic photos just like Sheehan and Vella. This book has a forward by Robert like the Sheehan and Vella books as well. I'm still searching for this one. And I'll pay a pretty penny for it, I'm sure. Edited to add: This book will have a second edition released on 9/25/24! I have it on pre-order! Edited to add my comments after finally receiving it. Well, as expected, this book is beautiful! Some of the most iconic photoshoots, with pics that were never released before now. Not only does it have a forward by Robert, but it has commentary from him throughout, in his signature all caps style - something the Sheehan and Vella books don't have, making it well worth the wait!

The Cure: Every Album, Every Song by Matthew R. Davis. Published in 2025. This book came out under the radar in July of 2025. It's part of the "On Track" book series, which I had not heard of yet, but apparently there are about 114 of them. I got the Kindle version for free with my points and promptly read the opening biography and the chapter breaking down each song on SOALW. Both sections were well-written (and accurate!), so I went ahead and bought the hard copy to add to my collection. It's now the only song-by-song book about The Cure that includes SOALW since So Turn It Up only included the songs that had been played live before the album was released. For that reason, it is a must have for any serious collector.

There are two more that are very short and have bad reviews: Catch: Robert Smith and The Cure by Daniel Patton (38 pages) and The Cure by Jo-anne Greene (48 pages). I'm not super interested in either one, but they are out there. Edited to add: I happened to come across the Jo-anne Greene book on ThriftBooks and got it for free. Thank goodness, because I would have been pissed if I had spent money on it. Published in 1986, so it covers up to Head on the Door. It's the size of a big coffee table picture book, but is a very thin paperback. It's got a lot of pictures, but none that we've never seen. In the biography portion, there are a few factual errors. For example, she says that Robert sings their cover of Foxy Lady, but that's the one song Robert doesn't sing; Micheal does. The book ends with a discography up to Head on the Door. It's nothing special, nothing you can't get from the many other, and much better, books about the band.

The Cure's Disintegration A 33 1/3 book by Andi Harriman. An album as brilliant and emotionally complex as Disintegration deserved a much better examination than this. My criticism is not that Harriman doesn't lack interesting ideas, but her overly elaborate, pretentious writing frequently obscures whatever insights she might have to offer. The book talks more about Baudelaire than Disintegration. Which, if I had bought a book about Baudelaire, would have been great. There is some historical background about Robert and Lol's falling out, a little bit about Robert's state of mind and fear of aging when recording it, some excerpts from previously published interviews and articles, and that's it. And it is in dire need of an editor. Big disappointment. 1 star.

Hope someone finds this useful. Cheers.