1/1/1987 Pulse Magazine
The Cure Ponders The Enigma Of Love
It sounds like romance is on a lot of peoples’ minds this month. For starters, Cure leader Robert Smith still hasn’t decided whether being in love is total ecstasy or pure hell. On Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (Elektra/13.98 list), he looks at love from both sides. "Your tongue is like poison... I wish you were dead," he sweetly crooned in "The Kiss"; but four songs later, he’s singing giddy and elated (and stealing "You Can’t Hurry Love" bassline) "Why Can’t I Be You." The rest of the angst should be familiar from other Cure albums; what’s new here are wide sweeps of sounds and maybe the Cure is a real band now, abandoning a Robert Smith solo project for a ? Here there are more experimental structures (in most cases, they begin midway through the song) it will probably be the Cure’s ? which make sense: It’s coming out of left-field experiments that create gorgeous melancholy. Some successes are kept in check. This style is an acquired taste coming from the best whiner in rock and roll.