Great Songs from My Favorite Year in Music: 1985, Part 9

The Cure - "In Between Days" & "Close to Me"





(Single Releases: July 1985 / September 1985)
Following the darker tone of the Cure's infamous trilogy of "goth" albums (Seventeen Seconds, Faith & Pornography), there seemed to be a concerted effort to write singles. "The Lovecats," "The Walk," and "Let's Go to Bed" were all catchy pop singles without any parent album. While this may have been commonplace in England, the singles market in the U.S. has never really been as viable. For us, it has always been an albums game. As such, it was no great surprise that two ofThe Cure's biggest songs were also included on the watershed album, The Head on the Door. These two, plus the previously mentioned singles, showed a lighter side to the Cure, one that embraced celebratory horns, whimsical synth notes, and more traditional song structures. Along with Hatful of Hollow, The Head on the Door was one of the albums I borrowed the most from my sister, who, being two years older, always seemed to be slightly ahead of the music curve than I was. Though some might choose "Just Like Heaven" or possibly something from Disintegration as the most iconic Cure song, there is no doubt that "Close to Me" and "In Between Days" will end up fairly high on that list.