The Cure - The Head on the Door

After recording one of their darkest albums, 1983's The Top, the Cure regrouped and shuffled their lineup in 1984 and ended up changing their musical direction rather radically. While the band always had a pop element in their sound and even recorded one of the lightest songs of the '80s, "The Lovecats," The Head on the Door is where they become a hitmaking machine. The shiny, sleek production and laser-sharp melodies of "Inbetween Days" and "Close to Me" helped them become modern rock radio staples and the inspired videos had them in heavy rotation on MTV. The rest of the record didn't suffer for hooks and inventive arrangements either, making even the gloomiest songs like "Screw" and "Kyoto Song" sound radio-ready, and the inventive arrangements (the flamenco guitars and castanets of "The Blood," the lengthy and majestic intro to "Push," the swirling vocals on "The Baby Screams") give the album a musical depth previous efforts lacked. All without sacrificing an ounce of the emotion of the past, which songs as quietly desperate as "A Night Like This" and "Sinking" illustrate. With The Head on the Door, Robert Smith figured out how to make gloom and doom danceable and popular to both alternative and mainstream rock audiences. It was a feat the band managed to pull off for many years afterward, but never as concisely or as impressively as they did here. ~ Tim Sendra, All Music Guide

Name Credits Amanda Smith Project Assistant Andy Vella Design, Photography Boris Williams Percussion, Group Member, Drums Chihiro Nozaki Art Coordinator Dave Allen Engineer, Producer Frank Barretta Assistant Engineer Howard Gray Producer Howard Grey Producer Joe Black Project Coordinator Kenny Nemes Project Assistant Laurence Tolhurst Group Member, Keyboards Martin White Assistant Engineer Minoru Harada Product Manager Nick Knight Photography Parched Art Design Paul Thompson Design Phil Tennant Assistant Engineer, Engineer Porl Thompson Guitar, Group Member, Keyboards Reggie Collins Project Assistant Robert "Big Bert" Smith Producer, Compilation, Keyboards, Vocals, Remastering Producer, Guitar, Group Member Robert J. Smith Producer, Vocals, Keyboards, Guitar Robert Smith Guitar, Vocals, Keyboards, Producer Ron Howe Saxophone Shinjiro Kawashima Art Research Simon Gallup Bass, Group Member Tom Leader Assistant Engineer Zoe Roberts Tape Research