Album Anniversaries: 30 Years Later, The Cure Still 'Wish' You Would Stop Calling Them Goth
The music of The Cure is often recognized as gothic rock, yet the band’s most commercially successful album strays from the darkness of their previous efforts, leaving behind a legacy of pop hits.
Written by Audrey Vieira
Photo courtesy of Rex Features
Following the success of its dark and eerie 1989 record Disintegration, The Cure seemed to have cemented its place as iconic gothic rockers, despite frontman Robert Smith making no secret of his distaste for the term. His frustration is understandable to an extent. Just as women singer-songwriters like Mitski and Phoebe Bridgers have criticized how the condescending “sad girl” label dismisses their range as artists, generalizing Smith as goth is an erasure of everything else he has been since founding The Cure more than four decades ago. And he has been many things.
The Cure are undoubtedly influential figures in goth subculture, regardless of whether Smith likes it or not. But the band’s 1992 release, Wish, shines by straying from the darkness of the band’s previous efforts, spawning pop hits in the process with singles “High” and “Friday, I’m In Love.” The latter especially would go on to become one of The Cure’s longest charting songs, spending 20 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, and Wish would debut at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, becoming the band’s highest-charting album in the United States.
The poppier singles never abandon The Cure’s gloomy gothic rock influences entirely — the vague lyricism of “High” calls into question whether the upbeat track is about appreciating a present lover or regretting a past breakup. Meanwhile, “Friday I’m In Love” famously laments about the gloomy and repetitive nature of weekdays. Still, the upbeat composition of both tracks is a welcome deviation from the doom and gloom of Disintegration.
“Friday I’m In Love” specifically has taken on a unique legacy in the 30 years since Wish came out, recognized as a pop hit despite The Cure continuing to be recognized as a goth band. A stripped-down cover recorded by the aforementioned Phoebe Bridgers as part of a 2018 Spotify Singles release explored the tracks' gloomier elements. Although melancholy, her take still feels like a love song, one that is just as much about The Cure and Robert Smith as it is about Fridays. The fact that “Friday I’m In Love,” of all songs, has become one of The Cure’s most successful singles is a testament to the band’s ability to go beyond the goth generalizations and put out a beloved pop hit, and a hint that for a big chunk of listeners, the legacy of The Cure lives outside the realm of pop.
Image courtesy of Elektra Records
Even Wish’s more melancholy moments benefit from Smith’s embrace of pop elements. The gothic rock roots are still audible, much to the relief of fans of The Cure’s earlier work, but the introduction of pop elements such as the “Do-do-do” hook throughout “Wendy Time” and calls to “shake out the blues” on “Doing The Unstuck” trade the gloom of its past for groovy, carefree fun. “Let’s get happy,” Smith exclaims on the latter, which is possibly one of the happiest songs in The Cure’s entire discography — a bold statement considering the band has made plenty of cheerful, upbeat songs, but it needs to be said, given Smith is still generalized as a gloomy goth rocker despite Wish proving him capable of creating pop perfection.
He may be famous for his dark eye makeup and teased black hairdo, but Smith is as much of a pop icon as he is a goth icon, though to say he can only be one of those things is a disservice to his talent. The success of Wish is proof that his work in The Cure excels in both categories alike. The Cure’s legacy is visible in everything from the industrial rock of Nine Inch Nails to the dark synthpop of CHVRCHES, whose most recent album Screen Violence veers into the realm of gothic pop and features a collaboration with Smith. The fact that Wish remains beloved by those who heard it in 1992 and those just getting into The Cure today demonstrates that the album’s success was not the result of The Cure selling out to pop radio, but the result of Smith and co. selling countless fans on one of the greatest bands of all time. It’s no surprise that 30 years later, millions of listeners are still in love.