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Rating: In 1984, the new wave scene was radicalizing both in its main musical streams and in its image and iconography. The magma of the so-called post-punk was being codified through a whole series of bands identifying themselves now as gothic-punk, now dark, and then in a thousand other ways, giving life to branches of genres (and consequently of fans) all actually united by the desire to reinterpret the stylistic elements of traditional rock after the breakup of the punk phenomenon.
The Cure, in this panorama, were moving between the instability of their lineup and the search for an identity that, after the depressions of Pornography and the jazz-tinged electronic pop of Japanese Whisper, needed precise directions. Robert Smith and Lol Tholurst, historic leaders of the group, began to adopt a look between gloomy and grotesque that mirrored their constant individual anxieties and supported a personal reinterpretation of the things produced up to that point.
The Top, in fact, although considered an anomalous album in the history of this cult band, sounds somewhat like the synthesis of past and forthcoming projects. Teeming as it is with playful and burlesque winks (Caterpillar), other jazzisms and relaxed and ironic kaleidoscopes (Bananafishbones, Piggy In The Mirror), disturbing and desperate sexual references (Shake Dog Shake, Give Me It), nocturnal melancholies (Dressing Up), and Arabesque lullabies (Wailing Wall), the album seems to echo with new luster the atmospheres of the early records while simultaneously anticipating the later works. All with an artistic maturity that quickly surpassed the synth-pop flirtations of Let's Go To Bed and laid the foundations for a new important creative phase. Without The Top, we would not have had The Head On The Door and Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me.
However, it is not such an immediate work. Despite the iridescent color contaminations that tempered the black look of that period, it is the most heterogeneous and unpredictable work realized up to that moment. Although embellished with rhythms and melodies that would not look out of place in the records of some illustrious international singer-songwriter, there is not a single track that can reach the heart with the more linear simplicity of the subsequent The Head On The Door. There isn’t a single track that does not reveal a complex journey, a poetic metaphor, an almost esoteric symbolism in the intentions of Robert Smith and therefore his peers.
The presence of many animals in the song titles is the most evident example of this transversal choice. There are the dog, the bird, the pig, the caterpillar, the fish... and in the lyrics, the polar bear, the cat... are also cited. A sort of zoological allegory of the human tribe in which characters identify themselves with behaviors and lifestyles. An allegory only seemingly amusing that surrounds the heavy sense of bewilderment and disillusionment that grips the individual, incapable of reaching the top and probably also incapable of descending from it.
Explosions of rhythmic violence alternate with reflective impressionist moments, in this composite album which marked a decisive affirmation of the dark-look in the youth world. Teased hair, rosaries and crucifixes, creeper shoes, lipsticks, and mascara are the other side of the solution of disguising oneself as animals; in life as well as on stage.
The Top, therefore, an apparently transitional work, would seem instead to be the keystone to understand the evolution of The Cure and the definitive codification of a cultural wave that, like it or not, marked an era.
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 Shake Dog Shake (04:55)
Ha ha ha!!!
Wake up in the dark
The aftertaste of anger in the back of my mouth
Spit it on the wall
And cough some more
And scrape my skin with razor blades
And make up in the new blood
And try to look so good
Follow me!
Make up in the new blood
And follow me to where the real fun is
Ha ha ha!!!
As stale and selfish as a sick dog
Spurning sex like an animal of god
I'll tear your red hair by the roots
And hold you blazing
Hold you cherished in the dead electric light
Your face
I'll never see you this way again
I captured it so perfectly
As if I knew you'd disappear away
Shake dog shake
You hit me again
You howl and hit me again
The same sharp pain
Wakes me in the dark
And cuts me from my throat to my pounding heart
My heart
My shaking heart
Shake dog shake
But we slept all night in the virgin's bed
And dreamed of death
And breathed like sick dogs
We slept all night in the virgin's bed
And breathed like death
And dreamed of sick dogs
Shake dog shake
Wake up wake up wake up!
Shake dog shake
Wake up wake up wake up!
Shake dog shake
Wake up in the new blood
Make up in the new blood
Shake up in the new blood
And follow me to where the real fun is...
Shake dog shake
03 Wailing Wall (05:17)
The holy city breathed
Like a dying man
It moved with hopeful tears
With the tears of the blind
And on and on as the night drew in
Through broken streets
That sucked me in
My feet were bare and cut with stones
With walking to the promised land
I pushed through crowds
Through seas of prayer
Through twisting hands and choking air
A vulture at the wailing wall
I circled...
Waiting...
04 Give Me It (03:42)
Get away from me
Get your fingers out of my face
This room's so hot
This room's so hot
I break the walls
Get away from me
Leave me alone
Like the pig on the stairs
Hanging
In a groovy purple shirt
Gasping for air
I'm gasping for air
I'm gasping for love
I'm gasping for air...
Slit the cats like cheese
Then eat the sweet sticky things
Suck harder!
Suck harder!
Suck your insides
Insides out!
Blood thick swimming round your feet
As you're choking
Choking
Choking on the fleshy words
Give me it give me it give me it
Deaden my glassy mind
Give me it give me it
Make me blind
One step back and one step down
And slip the needles in my side...
My head is cold
My hands are cold
My heart is cold
My heart is black
And stops every fucking night
Every night
I wait until it stops...
Sing birds sing birds sing birds sing
Get away...
05 Dressing Up (02:51)
Going under slowly
It never seems too late
Going under so slow...
Dressing up to kiss
Dressing up to touch all this
I'm dressing up to dance all week
I'm dressing up to sleep
Dressing up to kiss
Dressing up to be all this
I could eat your face
I could eat all of you
Oh this night will never let me go...
Going under slowly
Never seems too late
Going under slowly...
You'll pick me up again
06 The Caterpillar (03:40)
Flicka flicka flicka!
Here you are
Cata cata cata!
Caterpillar girl
Flowing in
And filling up my hopeless heart
Oh never never go
Dust my lemon lies
With powder pink and sweet
The day I stop
Is the day you change
And fly away from me
You flicker
And you're beautiful
You glow inside my head
You hold me hypnotized
I'm mesmerized...
Your flames
The flames that kiss me dead
07 Piggy in the Mirror (03:40)
Shapes in the drink like Christ
Cracks in the pale blue wall
I'm walking slowly and quickly but
Always away
Twisting twisting to the floor
Flowers in your mouth and the same dry song
The routine from laughter land
Sixteen white legs and a row of teeth
They watch you in secrecy
You're dying for the hope is gone
From here we go nowhere again
I'm trapped in my face and I'm changing
Too much
I can't climb out the way I fell in
Jump with me
For that old forgotten dance
The midnight sun will burn you up
Your life is cold
Your life is hard
Your life is too much for words
These occasions are such a relief
Another point another view to send
Hey hey hey!
We start to talk
And it's all so safe...
I feed you in my dreams
Footsteps on a wire
High above my head
The stain reveals my real intention
I'm the waiting beast
I'm the twisted nerve
As I dance
Dance back to the body in my bed
Look at the piggy
Piggy in the mirror
09 Bananafishbones (03:12)
Curl into a ball like you have more fun
That would make it faster
Why do you do it do you do it do you act like you?
Why do you do it do you act like you?
Don't fight
Go red and blue and black and white
Sell this sell this
Or leave it senseless like a suck on a gun?
"Put a piece of metal in your head" you said
"Make you dead
Make you hippa hippa hippa hippa... "
A palace of stones
Of your bananafish bones
I'd buy you a hundred years old
To celebrate our difference
Theorise and talk yourself
Until you're tired and old
Disappear everywhere and watch me
Pull my lips apart
Exploit! Inspire! Encourage!
Be responsible for this...
Ha ha!
I don't think
I don't think
I make use of all this time
Oh kill me kiss me once
And then we'll throw it away
And then we'll throw it away...
Turn off the lights
And tell me about the games you play...
10 The Top (06:50)
"I don't care"
If only I could say that
And not feel so sick and scared
"I don't care"
I only Icould say that
I only my eyes would close...
"It's jesus brilliant"
You used to laugh
"Walking these gorgeous blocks...
This top is the place
Where nobody goes
You just imagine
You just imagine it all..."
Every day I lie here
And know that it's true
All I really want is you
Please come back
Please come back
Like all the other ones do...
Please come back
All of you...
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Other reviews
By easycure
Robert Smith is here, more than in previous albums, without a doubt... He transforms into the Syd Barrett of the 80s, elusive and amused, with his subtle irony.
Ladies and gentlemen, THE BEST CURE ALBUM, and may the walls collapse too.
By how the end always is
"The Top remains one of the most absurd yet also artistically great moments in Cure’s history!"
"The Top is the place where nobody goes... YOU JUST IMAGINE IT ALL...! This is ART!!!"
