The Top

The Head on the Door This is The Cure's 6th studio album--brilliantly-fused brooding, artistic experimentation with pop instincts to propel the band onto the American charts for the first time.	Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me This is The Cure's landmark album, featuring 18 previously unreleased tracks.	Pornography [Deluxe Edition] Originally a Goth-flavored post-punk outfit, the Cure evolved into one of the truly seminal bands of the '80s, and ultimately one of modern rock's most celebrated and influential acts. Guided by creative visionary Robert Smith, the Cure's signature sound balances a dreamy pop sav...	Faith [Deluxe Edition] Originally a Goth-flavored post-punk outfit, the Cure evolved into one of the truly seminal bands of the '80s, and ultimately one of modern rock's most celebrated and influential acts. Guided by creative visionary Robert Smith, the Cure's signature sound balances a dreamy pop sav...	Seventeen Seconds [Deluxe Edition] Originally a Goth-flavored post-punk outfit, the Cure evolved into one of the truly seminal bands of the '80s, and ultimately one of modern rock's most celebrated and influential acts. Guided by creative visionary Robert Smith, the Cure's signature sound balances a dreamy pop sav...
Three Imaginary Boys Though this 1979 debut album by The Cure would scarcely dent the Top 50 in the UK and entirely forego an official American release (though a handful of tracks would appear on the US-only compilation Boys Don't Cry), it remains equal parts touchstone and curiosity for Cure faithfu...	Freakshow (Mix 13) The Cure, one of the most revered British bands of the past quarter-century, have unveiled their plans to release four singles, one each month starting May 13th, leading up to the release of their thirteenth studio album, as yet untitled, which will be out on Suretone/Geffen Reco...	Blue Sunshine This album was originally released in 1983 as the one-off collaboration between Robert Smith and Steve Severin. Includes 16 bonus rarities.	The Only One (Mix 13) The Cure, one of the most revered British bands of the past quarter-century, have unveiled their plans to release four singles, one each month starting May 13th, leading up to the release of their thirteenth studio album, as yet untitled, which will be out on Suretone/Geffen Rec...	4:13 Dream No one ever managed to nail aimless suburban alienation quite like the Cure, so sensitive yet so party-hearty, and 4:13 Dream, their thirteenth studio album and first in four years, lands in a musical landscape infested with their descendents. Yet Robert Smith and his old blokes ...

Some small additions to what's already been said
I first bought the Top on cassette in the mid-90s for one reason: I had the Standing on a Beach compilation, and really liked The Caterpillar, and I wanted to find out what else was on this album. I'll admit I was very disappointed at first. I thought it must be the worst Cure album ever. Obviously I wasn't ready for this album, or was expecting something else. I only became aware of the Cure in 1993, so I discovered their albums in a haphazard non-chronological manner, starting with Standing on a Beach, Disintegration, Wish, and kind of working backwards. By 1998 I was a hard-core fan trying to track down all their b-sides (which I did eventually, about 3 years before Join the Dots came out). The Top was one of the last albums I "discovered," even though I had the cassette for years before many of the other early albums. I think my point here is that The Top is a fantastic, massively enjoyable album, but is far less accessible or universal as much of their other work. It is an acquired taste, perhaps only for Cure fans or people who are generally into avante-garde music. Still it's puzzling that it wasn't available for so long on compact disc in the US, as if somehow it wasn't worthy of release. So this most recent edition is much appreciated. Finally a note about bananafishbones. This wasn't a frequently performed song at live shows, but I do have one recording of it from Hertongenbosch, May 30, 1984. It is interesting that the tempo on this day was even faster, at 82 bpm than the new tempo of the remastered edition (76 bpm). When I first acquired this recording I thought the cassette must have been played back too fast when it was transferred to mp3. But there's nothing else in the recording that indicates this. Which makes me think that Robert Smith must have very early on regretted the slow tempo on the LP, and that he was wanting this chance at remastering for over 20 years. Not to say the Cure wouldn't play a song faster live, but this is by far the most dramatic example I've heard.

A quick note on the remastering
To all the reviewers who have complained about the drum roll at the start of "Shake Dog Shake" being edited, this is not the case. It's all there, but has been remastered such that it commences a fraction of a second prior to the start of track 1. To hear the beginning, you have to press play, then search backwards into the 2 second pre-gap. (Mind you, not all CD players will do this.) I think it's most unlikely this was done intentionally, and believe it to be a remastering error. An annoying one, yes, but not as bad as if they'd clipped off the beginning completely!

Like a Pig on the stairs - Hanging in a groovy purple shirt!!
I hadn't listened to THE TOP in over 15 years, but I've recently found myself digging back into the 80's New Romantic/Goth/New Wave discs from my youth and when I found out that the 2nd Disc FINALLY included the great unreleased and often bootlegged ARIEL from that time period, I swiped up a copy. If you never heard the song before, it was basically a blueprint for Just One Kiss, a b-side that ended up on the great 1983 singles comp Japanese Whispers, when it was still in print. But Ariel was better. the chorus of "never grow old" rings nothing short of a muddy middle-aged mantra which I've been unable to shake from my head, so this was indeed a reason to swoop down and grab some OLD SCHOOL Cure re-issues (1982-1984 being a a great psychedelic period for Mr. Smith). This is a great album, better than I remembered it. I know I'm at odds with most people here, but I find this way more listenable than the remaster of Pornography I just purchased as well. Rather than dwell in a Martin Hannett-period echo chamber of drones (if I want to hear this, anything from Factory from that period does it infinitely better), this recording finds Bob alone with very little band input, tripping his stones off. There's some hope and humanity here. It's still dark, but the walls are paisley and I likey. The b-side disc is rough, but it's archivally important, fascinating and fascinating EXCEPT Bob remixed Ariel. it's slower and he must have been embarassed by the lyrics, which is the only reason I can see for him adding ridiculous amounts of reverb all over it. It sounds like mud, the track is also slower than I remember it. I pulled out my cd-r burn of demos and I am correct in this. Seek it out, if you don't already have it. That being said, the 2nd disc is a great alternative Top and I would recommend it to anyone interested in the transition between their dark era and Head on the Door, or to Siouxsie fans, as this was Bob's "night project" while recording Hyaena during the day. Fueling the sessions was a mix of cocaine, alcohol and mushrooms that nearly destroyed RS and creatively annihilated Lol Tolhurst forever (he contributed melody to Caterpillar and three others during these sessions but probably didn't play on any of them). If you're like me and love the sound of an artist's mind fragmented by psychosis all over slabs of vinyl (Syd Barrett, Ian Curtis, Skip Spence, Lou Reed, Peter Hammill, et al) then this is your Cure.

One of the most original albums of the 80's
I have been a fan of this band for many years. I have seen them live. I own every album they did up through Wish. And in my opinion this is the best album I have heard by them, narrowly beating out the Head on the Door. It is the only album that I never once hit the next song button the entire way through. It is a psychedelic freak-out. Robert Smith's vocals sound great. Their is abundant variety on here and it is all done fairly well. Wherever you want to go this album will take you. It has great rock, pop, dirge, punk and chill-out. Part of what I always liked most about this band was that they experimented with a lot of different styles and didn't stagnate in the same thing for too long. 83-84 were a highly underrated two years for the Cure. If you listen to Japanese Whispers and then this album back to back it is unbelievable all the stops you will make on your journey. have fun

Very good album
I honestly don't understand why this album is so widely panned. I think it's brilliant. The stylistic differences in the tunes only make me like it more, not less. The only track I could live without is ironically, the most commercial-The Caterpillar. I don't care for that one and it's the reason I only gave this album 4 instead of 5 stars. My favorite tracks are Dressing Up, Empty World, Wailing Wall and The Top. Those are some of my very favorite Cure tracks and I never tire of listening to them. I'm not terribly fond of the bonus disc on this one either. I think it's less interesting than the previous ones. That said, I highly recommend this one for anyone wanting some very bleak, angry, disturbing yet very creative music.