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1994, Q
As with Morrissey, The Cure's choice of support band is always famously loaded. For their gargantuan Wish tour, they picked Portsmouth's Cranes, the sort of career move a young gothtet cannot buy. Up to then, their gossamer-operatic cathedrality was of marginal global interest; but Top 30 success for last single Jewel engenders this, their fourth LP, a significant release. And a move in the right direction it is, too. Self-produced, it bullies previously wanton wispiness and treacle into a more palatable, graphic shape. Songs unafraid to call themselves Lillies and Beautiful Friend -strumming, chiming, echoing-haunt without undue stomach-curdlage. Alison Shaw's once indistinct warble now reveals lyrics, tenderness and structure, and all-round song-orientation prevails. Can they give goth a good name at last? On this evidence, it seems so.
Star Rating: (4 out of 5)
Reviewed by Andrew Collins
© Q 1994
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