Orange County Register
(May 26th, 2000)


Is this the final Cure?

PREVIEW: Robert Smith says the newest album is the group's swan song.

May 26, 2000

By RICHARD CHANG The Orange County Register

Robert Smith, founder and lead singer of the Cure, insists his latest album, "Bloodflowers," is the band's last.

Again.

He's been saying that for the past decade.

"The album was conceived as a final album - it was recorded in that atmosphere," he said from his home south of
London.

The lyrics certainly sound like this is the final Cure effort: "So the fire is almost out and there's nothing left to
burn/ I've run right out of thoughts and I've run right out of words" (from "39"); "No I won't do it again, I don't
want to pretend/ If it can't be like before I've got to let it end" (from "Maybe Someday").

Sure, Smith, one of the kings of 1980s doom-and-gloom rock, is getting older. He started the band in 1976, when
he was 17. He's now 41.

"I've spent almost 25 years touring," he said. "I'm surprised I'm still doing it. I really want to stay at home
more."

The Cure's latest tour, also expected to be the last, makes a stop at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre on
Sunday.

The band will play the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on Tuesday and Wednesday.

"Everyone in the band is convinced this is the last major world tour we're going to do," Smith said.

"Whether or not it's the last album - it's a good way to stop."

One of the most successful "underground" acts of the 1980s, the Cure popularized goth rock before it became
huge.

Led by the moody and capricious Smith, the Cure specialized in slow, layered, gloomy dirges, with an occasional
quirky, upbeat pop song thrown into the mix.

Smith made white face makeup, blood-red lipstick and teased black hair his trademarks. He still wears the stuff
on stage.

"I liken it to warpaint. I find it pretty much impossible to go on without makeup. But offstage, I don't go out with
it on anymore."

SMITH ON THE '80S

Unlike many of their '80s contemporaries, the Cure endures.

They've bucked obsolescence (think Kajagoogoo) and remain popular. In fact, the Cure's 1990s albums have
sold better than their 1980s works.

"The'80s to me - they don't mean anything," Smith said. "In England, we think of the'80s in terms of the
Thatcher era and the music that went with it. At the start of the'80s, we had the Psych Furs and Joy Division.
That mutated into the Human League. Then it ended with Nirvana. Then we had Spandau Ballet - that was
awful.

"It's hard to say what the'80s sound was. It's too simplistic to lump it all together. It's too long a period for
anyone to sum up what happened culturally."

THE EASY CURE

The band originally called itself the Easy Cure, a high school group from Crawley, Sussex. Smith dropped
"Easy" from the name, thinking it "too hippie-ish."

The Cure's first hit was "Killing An Arab," which was rereleased in February 1979. The song, inspired by
Albert Camus' novel "The Stranger," caused some controversy when it reappeared on the mid-1980s best-of
album, "Standing On a Beach." Opponents said it encouraged anti-Arab sentiments.

"Standing on a Beach" set the stage for "Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me," released in 1987. The double album
was a hit in Great Britain and the States, producing the hits "Why Can't I Be You?," "Just Like Heaven" and
"Hot, Hot, Hot!!!"

Through the years, the Cure faced personnel problems: Smith had a penchant for firing people.

A couple years and band members later, the band released "Disintegration," which spawned their biggest
American hit, "Lovesong," which reached No. 2 on the charts.

After a hiatus and rumors of a breakup, the Cure released "Wish" in 1992. The album included the hits
"High" and the curiously perky "Friday I'm in Love."

Several years and band members later, the Cure re-emerged with "Wild Mood Swings" in 1996.

ANOTHER WORLD AWAY

"Bloodflowers" was released in February. The album builds on the Cure's strengths: long, luxurious instrumental
lead-ins, and dark, moody lyrics. The album has been touted as the final chapter of a trilogy that started with
"Pornography" and "Disintegration."

"I'd lump it in with the more emotional side of what the Cure does," Smith said. "Lyrically, we're doing
something that means something. Musically as well, the way it's structured, with slow, long intros, it's mood
music. It's like another world away from some of the early stuff."

Two sources inspired the title: a Wilfred Owen poem describing a soldier's wound opening "like a flower of
blood"; and a book of letters by Edvard Munch, in which a character who constantly painted versions of the
same work was "plucking a flower of blood from his heart."

"In a way, I'm always writing the same song," Smith said. "I like the destructive image of a bullet wound, then
a beautiful, constructive image. It kind of means nothing and everything. The notion of the two ends - the sense
that flowers die, but new flowers grow."

As for the future, Smith says the band might do a date with Germany's Hanover Symphony Orchestra, à la
Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony. Then, he plans to record a solo album.

"I started doing that at the start of last year. I'm going to go back to that and finish that off. I'm not going to
be bothered with playing it live."

Smith hopes to finish the album by Christmas and release it early next year.

"It's not the kind of album that'll be played a lot on the radio. They're pieces that are not
verse-chorus-verse-chorus. They're not pieces of music in the serious, mainstream way. I'm going to do
something that isn't called 'the Cure.' And I've never done that before."
 

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