The Cure – Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me Fiction FIXH13 (1987)
Like most double albums, this one is too long. There also is a bizarre eclecticism at play that just doesn’t quite work. “Just Like Heaven” is classic Cure, with a little bit of punk bite but still very catchy (even if Dinosaur Jr.‘s cover version is better). As for the rest, well, it’s just all over the map. At times there is the percussion-laden sound of Public Image Ltd.‘s The Flowers of Romance, plenty of middle-eastern influences, a little lukewarm funk-rock, and even some inklings of the jazz odyssey of Wish — though it’s hard not to think that we are witnesses of the new birth of Spın̈al Tap, mark II. The Cure try many things here but do few of them well. This could be worse, and there are some decent songs. It’s still a disappointment though.