The Cure

Of course. While the songs' sounds range from darkly moody or insanely chipper, this band's lyrics usually range from the pain and futility of love to stuff that sounds like it came directly from someone's nightmare acid trip (especially Pornography). Robert Smith's voice is an acquired taste, but once you acquire it you realize how expressive his yowling is. Just avoid Wild Mood Swings....

I keep quoting "Other Voices" for stories and remain convinced that "Siamese Twins" is the soundtrack to Te's DeadBoy Mulder from her "Love of Dead Things" series.

Essential albums: Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me,
(for melancholy Cure) Disintegration and Pornography
(for chipper Cure) The Head on the Door and Japanese Whispers


For extra credit:
If you can find it (it's damned rare), pick up the side project Robert Smith did with Siouxsie and the Banshees' Steven Severin under the name "The Glove:" the Blue Sunshine album, which sounds like they got stoned and spent their time playing video games and watching Yellow Submarine.

Lyrics Sampler ("..." on a line alone shows places where I snipped
out lyrics):

"The Upstairs Room"

I love it all
These games we play
I close my eyes
You run away
I'm sure I asked you to stay
But now you're gone
And so I feel the grey
Pulse in my head
I turn off the lights and crawl into bed
I try to think of sunshine
But my body goes wet
With the first crash of thunder

I don't think I can know
Anyone but you dear
That's for sure

When it gets to four
It's my turn to go
Oh the kiss
So alcoholic and slow
Arranging me for Saturday
I thought you would know
That I always sleep
Alone

I don't think I can know
Anyone but you
Dear
That's for sure

The upstairs room is cool and bright
We can go up there in summer
And dance all night

Your sister started talking at a minute after ten
So everyone jumped up
And then fell over again
In April you can join them
And stare at me
______________________________________________________
"Icing Sugar"

You're delicious
Dreaming
Slack jawed
Green eyed
Rub my nose in
Icing sugar
Smooth as
When this cold and deadly
Blade
Kisses the fruit
So soft
And gently breathing
Under your skin

Oh, I'll empty you;
I'll empty you,
As empty as a boy can be
As empty
As a boy can be
______________________________________________________
"At Night"

Sunk deep in the night
I sink in the night
Standing alone underneath the sky
I feel the chill of ice
On my face
I watch the hours go by
The hours go by

You sleep
Sleep in a safe bed
Curled and protected
Protected from sight
Under a safe roof
Deep in your house
Unaware of the changes at night

At night
I hear the darkness breathe
I sense the quiet despair
Listen to the silence
At night
Someone has to be there
Someone has to be there

Someone must be there
______________________________________________________
"Play For Today"

It's not a case of doing what's right
It's just the way I feel that matters
Tell me I'm wrong
I don't really care

It's not a case of share and share alike
I take what I require
I don't understand...
You say it's not fair

You expect me to act
Like a lover
Consider my moves
And deserve the reward
To hold you in my arms
And wait
And wait
And wait
For something to happen

It's not a case of telling the truth
Some lines just fit the situation
Call me a liar
You would anyway

It's not a case of aiming to please
You know you're always crying
It's just your part
In the play for today
______________________________________________________
"Secrets"

Secrets
Share with another girl
Talking all night in a room
All night
Everything slowing down
I wish I was yours...

Strangers
Nobody knows we love
I catch your eyes in the dark
One look relives the memory
Remember me
The way I used to be
______________________________________________________
"Give Me It"

Get away from me
Get your fingers out of my face
This room's so hot
This room's so hot

I break the walls

Get away from me
Leave me alone
...

Gasping for air
I'm gasping for air
I'm gasping for love
I'm gasping for air

Slit the cats like cheese
Then eat the sweet sticky things
Suck harder suck harder
Suck your insides, insides out

Blood thick swimming round your feet
As you're choking
Choking
Choking on the fleshy words

Give me it, give me it, give me it
Deaden my glassy mind
Give me it, give me it, give me it
Make me blind
One step back and one step down
And slip the needles in my side

My head is cold
My hands are cold
My heart is cold
My heart is black
And stops every fucking night
Every night
I wait until it stops

Sing birds, sing birds, sing birds, sing
Get away
______________________________________________________
"Siamese Twins"

I chose an eternity of this
Like falling angels
The world disappeared
Laughing into the fire
Is it always like this?
Flesh and blood and the first kiss
The first colours
The first kiss

We writhed under a red light
Voodoo smile
Siamese twins
A girl at the window looks at me for an hour
Then everything falls apart
Broken inside me
It falls apart

The walls and the ceiling move in time
Push a blade into my hands
Slowly up the stairs
And into the room
Is it always like this?

Dancing in my pocket
Worms eat my skin
She glows and grows
With arms outstretched
Her legs around me

In the morning I cried

Leave me to die
You won't remember my voice
I walked away and grew old
You never talk
We never smile
I scream
You're nothing
I don't need you any more
You're nothing

It fades and spins
Fades and spins

Sing out loud
We all die
Laughing into the fire

Is it always like this?
Is it always like this?
Is it always like this?
______________________________________________________
"Pornography"
...
But it's too late
But it's too late

One more day like today and I'll kill you
A desire for flesh
And real blood
I'll watch you drown in the shower
Pushing my life through your open eyes

I must fight this sickness
Find a cure
I must fight this sickness
______________________________________________________
"Faith"

Catch me if I fall
I'm losing hold
I can't just carry on this way
And every time
I turn away
Lose another blind game
The idea of perfection holds me
Suddenly I see you change
Everything at once
The same
But the mountain never moves

Rape me like a child
Christened in blood
Painted like an unknown saint
There's nothing left but hope
Your voice is dead
And old
And always empty
Trust in me through closing years
Perfect moments wait
If only we could stay
Please
Say the right words
Or cry like the stone white clown
And stand forever
Lost forever in a happy crowd

No one lifts their hands
No one lifts their eyes
Justified with empty words
The party just gets better and better

I went away alone
With nothing left
But faith
______________________________________________________
"Other Voices"

Whisper your name in an empty room
You brush past my skin
As soft as fur
Taking hold
I taste your scent
Distant noises
Other voices
Pounding in my broken head
Commit the sin
Commit yourself
And all the other voices said
Change your mind
You're always wrong
Always wrong

Come around at Christmas
I really have to see you
Smile at me slyly
Another festive compromise
But I live with desertion
And eight million people
Distant noises
Of other voices
Pulsing in my swinging arms
Caress the sound
So many dead
And all the other voices sing
Change your mind
You're always wrong
______________________________________________________
"Primary"
...
The very first time I saw your face
I thought of a song
And quickly changed the tune
The very first time I touched your skin
I thought of a story
And rushed to reach the end
Too soon

Oh remember
Please
Don't change
...
______________________________________________________
"The Blood"

Tell me who doesn't love
What can never come back
You can never forget how it used to feel
The illusion is deep
It's as deep as the night
I can tell by your tears you remember it all
...
______________________________________________________
"One Hundred Years"

It doesn't matter if we all die
Ambition in the back of a black car
In a high building there is so much to do
Going home time
A story on the radio

Something small falls out of your mouth
And we laugh
A prayer for something better
A prayer
For something better

Please love me
Meet my mother
But the fear takes hold
Creeping up the stairs in the dark
Waiting for the death blow
Waiting for the death blow
Waiting for the death blow

Stroking your hair as the patriots are shot
Fighting for freedom on television
Sharing the world with slaughtered pigs
Have we got everything?
She struggles to get away...

The pain
And the creeping feeling
A little black haired girl
Waiting for Saturday
The death of her father pushing her
Pushing her white face into the mirror
Aching inside me
And turn me round
Just like the old days
Just like the old days
Just like the old days
Just like the old days

Caressing an old man
And painting a lifeless face
Just a piece of new meat in a clean room
The soldiers close in under a yellow moon
All shadows and deliverance
Under a black flag
A hundred years of blood
Crimson
The ribbon tightens round my throat
I open my mouth
And my head bursts open
A sound like a tiger thrashing in the water
Thrashing in the water
Over and over
We die one after the other
Over and over
We die one after the other
One after the other
One after the other
One after the other
One after the other

It feels like a hundred years
A hundred years
A hundred years
A hundred years
A hundred years
One hundred years
______________________________________________________
"The Figurehead"

Sharp and open
Leave me alone
And sleeping less every night
As the days become heavier and weighted
Waiting
In the cold light
A noise
A scream tears my clothes as the figurines tighten
With spiders inside them
And dust on the lips of a vision of hell
I laughed in the mirror for the first time in a year

A hundred other words blind me with your purity
Like an old painted doll in the throes of dance
I think about tomorrow
Please let me sleep
As I slip down the window
Freshly squashed fly
You mean nothing
You mean nothing

I can lose myself in Chinese art and American girls
All the time
Lose me in the dark
Please do it right
Run into the night
I will lose myself tomorrow
Crimson pain
My heart explodes
My memory in a fire
And someone will listen
At least for a short while

I can never say no to anyone but you

Too many secrets
Too many lies
Writhing with hatred
Too many secrets
Please make it good tonight
But the same image haunts me
In sequence
In despair of time

I will never be clean again
I touched her eyes
Pressed my stained face
I will never be clean again

Touch her eyes
Press my stained face
I will never be clean again
I will never be clean again
I will never be clean again
I will never be clean again
______________________________________________________
"Homesick"

hey hey! just one more and I'll walk away
all the everything you win turns to nothing today
and I forget when to move when my mouth is this dry
and my eyes are bursting hearts in a blood-stained sky
oh it was sweet it was wild
and oh how we...
I trembled stuck in honey
honey cling to me
so just one more, just one more go
inspire in me the desire in me to never go home

oh just one more and I'll walk away
all the everything you win turns to nothing today
so just one more, just one more go
inspire in me the desire in me to never go home
______________________________________________________
"Last Dance"

I'm so glad you came
I'm so glad you remembered
to see how we're ending our last dance together
expectant, too punctual
but prettier than ever
I really believed
that this time it's forever
...
______________________________________________________
"Doubt"

Stop my flight to fight
And die
And take a stand to change my life
So savage with red desperation
I clench my hands
You draw your claws
A hidden rage consumes my heart
Fueled by years of wasted time
I close my eyes
And tense myself
And screaming
Throw myself in fury over the edge
And into your blood

Tear at flesh
And rip at skin
And smash at doubt
I have to break you
Fury drives my vicious blows
I see you fall but still I strike you
Again and again
Your body falls
The movement is sharp and clear and pure
And gone
I stop and kneel beside you
Drained of everything but pain

Screaming throw myself in fury
Over the edge and into your blood

Kiss you once and see you writhe
Hold you close and hear you cry
Kiss your eyes and finish your life
Kiss your eyes
Finish your life

Again and again
Your body falls
The movement is sharp and clear and pure
And gone
I stop and kneel beside you
Knowing I'll murder you again tonight

Knowing I'll murder you again
Knowing I'll murder you again
Knowing I'll murder you again
Knowing I'll murder you again
Tonight
______________________________________________________
"Sinking"

I am slowing down
As the years go by
I am sinking
So I trick myself
Like everybody else

The secrets I hide
Twist me inside
They make me weaker

So I trick myself
Like everybody else
I crouch in fear and wait
I'll never feel again

If only I could remember
Anything at all
______________________________________________________
"Fascination Street"

oh, it's opening time down on fascination street
so let's cut the conversation and get out for a bit
because I feel it all fading
and paling and I'm begging
to drag you down with me
to kick the last nail in
yeah I like you in that
like I like you to scream
but if you open your mouth
then I cant be responsible for quite what goes in
or to care what comes out
so just pull on your hair, just pull on your pout
and let's move to the beat
like we know that it's over
if you slip going under, slip over my shoulder
so just pull on your face, just pull on your feet
and let's hit opening time
down on fascination street

so pull on your hair, pull on your pout
cut the conversation, just open your mouth
pull on your face, pull on your feet
and let's hit opening time
down on fascination street
______________________________________________________
"Disintegration"

oh I miss the kiss of treachery the shameless
kiss of vanity the soft and the black and the
velvety up tight against the side of me and
mouth and eyes and heart all bleed and run in
thickening streams of greed as bit by bit it
starts the need to just let go my party piece

oh I miss the kiss of treachery the aching kiss
before I feed the stench of a love for a younger
meat and the sound that it makes when it cuts
in deep the holding up on bended knees the
addiction of duplicities as bit by bit it starts
the need to just let go my party piece

but I never said I would stay to the end so I
leave you with babies and hoping for frequency
screaming like this in the hope of the secrecy
screaming me over and over and over I leave
you with photographs pictures of trickery
stains on the carpet and stains on the scenery
songs about happiness murmured in dreams
when we both us knew how the ending would
be...

so it's all come back round to breaking apart
again breaking apart like I'm made up of glass
again making it up behind my back again
holding my breath for the fear of sleep again
holding it up behind my head again cut in deep
to the heart of the bone again round and round
and round and it's coming apart again over and
over and over

now that I know that I'm breaking to pieces I'll
pull out my heart and I'll feed it to anyone
crying for sympathy crocodile cry for the love
of the crowd and the three cheers from
everyone dropping through sky through the
glass of the roof through the roof of your mouth
through the mouth of your eye through the eye
of the needle it's easier for me to get closer to
heaven than ever feel whole again

I never said I would stay to the end I knew I
would leave you with babies and everything
screaming like this in the hole of sincerity
screaming me over and over and over I leave
you with photographs pictures of trickery
stains on the carpet and stains on the memory
songs about happiness murmured in dreams when we both
of us knew how the end always is...

how the end always is...