The Head On The Door (Remastered) [CD]

Good

One of my first favorites of the Cure!

I love this album

I'm going to handle this the same was as Kiss Me and not say anything about the CD itself, what for? We all know it by heart anyway. The bonus stuff? Interesting, but hardly essential.The question is how has the music improved from the "standard" CD? Methodology? I ripped the new CD using Winamp, and to be fair, re-ripped the old one, using the same settings. I kept neither one, because some kid on usenet did an even better job than me . . . hey, that's fair, I bought this, so quiet now. I'm not about to cheat Bob. In any case, I made a new playlist in Winamp and flipped back and forth between the rips.Results? Like Kiss Me, more presence and punch in the new versions vs. the old. Is it startling? No, and it's possible that I could have tweaked the settings to bring up the old version to sound similar. Limitations? X-Fi driving an HK 3400 into Ascends and a Sony subwoofer . . . and totally wrecked 55 year old ears.Recommendation? Cure fans must of course have it. No one else is listening, so I don't suppose it matters much what else I say! But it's not an earthshaking improvement I'm afraid. Faith was helped quite a bit, the original was kind of muddy in comparison, but as you go forward the improvements get harder to find. Ah well, let's move onto the grail. I'm sure that will bring the audiophiles out of the woodwork!

Where are all the reviews for The Head On The Door? At the time I'm writing this, there are only six. This is definitely the most unheralded album in The Cure's collection. That's a shame, because this is a great, great album and a stellar representation of what The Cure was doing in the 80's. I have the entire Cure studio discography, and I can say without hesitation that the song Push from this album is easily one of my very favorite Cure songs. Other favorites on here include In Between Days, Screw and Sinking, with The Baby Screams getting an honorable mention. In fact, everything about this album is brilliant in my opinion. It's all over the place sonically, which is a good thing; it's The Cure branching out even more than usual, if that's possible. In my opinion, 1984's The Top was one of The Cure's weaker efforts, and in 1987, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me dazzled all Cure fans. And, of course, Kiss Me paved the way for one of the greatest albums ever released: 1989's Disintegration. But in the middle of all that was this tiny masterpiece, which has been sadly overlooked since it's release. This is outstanding stuff and, I think, one of The Cure's best albums, right behind Disintegration, Faith and Bloodflowers. Please get this album, and then you may commence to kicking yourself for ignoring it for so long.

The Cure's follow-up to The Top finds the band in a transitional period. For the second album in a row (third if you count Japanese Whispers), Robert Smith finds the band with a new lineup (but not completely new - Simon Gallup rejoins the band, Porl Thompson is made into a permanent member, with the sole new guy being drummer Boris Thompson). Smith was still working on transitioning his compositional style away from the grim songs of Pornography, but he's not sold on the lighter pop confections of Let's Go To Bed or Caterpillar Girl. The result is middling at times - most of the songs I rate 3 out of 5 stars. But Smith strikes gold on songs like Inbetween Days, Close To Me, and A Night Like This, songs that would become staples in their concert set-list. Also of note are Push and Sinking, songs that lead up to the successes of Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me and Disintegration. You can easily acquire Inbetween Days and Close To Me on one of their various compilations, but what makes this disc a good acquisition is the stuff that doesn't make the compilations. Push, in particular, I find to be a compelling song that easily blends in with Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, and is easily added to my list of favorite Cure songs. All in all, not their best album, but still a worthy acquisition that provides a preview of the great music that was to come.

A great place to start as the other reviewers posted. It was my first Cure album as well, and I was instantly hooked. By the time I came around to the Cure, the album Wish was just coming out. My cousin was a fan, and introduced me to the "earlier" stuff. This is the sixth album so they were already deep into their discography by this point. I'm enjoying these deluxe additions as well, mainly for two reasons. I love seeing how the songs were being constructed early on with just home demo tapes, and every now and then they contain an almost polished song that rivals the original. Personally, I enjoy the "Close to Me" version on the second disc more than the original. Everyone knows that Disintegration is considered their masterpiece album (and it is) even if its not their favorite Cure album, but I suggest starting out with Head on the Door for its wide range of the Cure's style. I love most of the Cure albums, but I usually come back to this one over and over.

This is a true masterpiece, one Cures best effort’s. I love this record not a bad song.