The Head on the Door

by The Cure

Overview

After recording one of their darkest albums, 1984's The Top, the Cure regrouped and shuffled their lineup, which changed their musical direction rather radically. While the band always had a pop element in their sound and even recorded one of the lightest songs of the '80s, "The Lovecats," The Head on the Door is where they become a hitmaking machine. The shiny, sleek production and laser-sharp melodies of "Inbetween Days" and "Close to Me" helped them become modern rock radio staples and the inspired videos had them in heavy rotation on MTV. The rest of the record didn't suffer for hooks and inventive arrangements either, making even the gloomiest songs like "Screw" and "Kyoto Song" sound radio-ready, and the inventive arrangements (the flamenco guitars and castanets of "The Blood," the lengthy and majestic intro to "Push," the swirling vocals on "The Baby Screams") give the album a musical depth previous efforts lacked. All without sacrificing an ounce of the emotion of the past, which songs as quietly desperate as "A Night Like This" and "Sinking" illustrate. With The Head on the Door, Robert Smith figured out how to make gloom and doom danceable and popular to both alternative and mainstream rock audiences. It was a feat the band managed to pull off for many years afterward, but never as concisely or as impressively as they did here. ~ Tim Sendra

Product Details

Release Date:	11/06/2006
Label:	Polydor / Universal
UPC:	0602498400173

Tracks

1. In Between Days
2. Kyoto Song
3. Blood
4. Six Different Ways
5. Push
6. Baby Screams
7. Close To Me
8. Night Like This
9. Screw
10. Sinking

Album Credits

Performance Credits

The Cure   Primary Artist
Simon Gallup   Guitar (Bass),Bass
Robert J. Smith   Guitar,Vocals,Keyboards
Robert Smith   Guitar,Vocals,Keyboards,Guitar,Vocals,Keyboards
Boris Williams   Drums,Percussion
Lol Tolhurst   Keyboards
Porl Thompson   Guitar,Keyboards
Ron Howe   Saxophone

Technical Credits

Robert Smith   Audio Production,Producer,Group Member,Remastering Producer,Mixing,Composer,Producer,Performer
Dave Allen   Audio Engineer,Mixing,Engineer,Producer
Howard Grey   Producer
Robert J. Smith   Producer
Chihiro Nozaki   Art Coordinator
Boris Williams   Group Member
Lol Tolhurst   Group Member
Joe Black   Project Coordinator
The Cure   Performer
Jason Cooper   Composer
Howard Gray   Producer
Porl Thompson   Composer,Group Member
Martin White   Engineer,Assistant Engineer
Simon Gallup   Composer,Group Member
Reggie Collins   Project Assistant
Tom Leader   Engineer,Assistant Engineer
Amanda Smith   Project Assistant
Kenny Nemes   Project Assistant
Phil Tennant   Engineer,Assistant Engineer
Frank Barretta   Engineer,Assistant Engineer
Paul Thompson   Design
Andy Vella   Design,Photography
Zoe Roberts   Tape Research
Nick Knight   Photography
Parched Art   Design
Shinjiro Kawashima   Art Research
Minoru Harada   Product Manager