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THE CURE
Double-album vinyl picture disc reissue for Record Store Day
Wild Mood Swings
(reissue, 1996)
UMC
7/10
When Wild Mood Swings was released in 1996, there was a consensus that its title was an oversell. Certainly, when measured against its predecessors – The Cure’s umpty-platinum imperial period of Wish and Disintegration – it felt like a slight work, harking back to the much frailer-sounding group that had made The Top just over a decade previously. Heard now, removed from the acts it was following, Wild Mood Swings stacks up more convincingly. “Want” is a compelling addition to The Cure’s canon of dry-ice-doused existentialist epics and “Strange Attraction” an unusually straightforwardly told tale of obsession and bewilderment set to a syrupy pop backing. Robert Smith’s own estimation of Wild Mood Swings as one of The Cure’s best will remain a minority position – but it is nevertheless worth another listen.