THE CURE
Wis h (reissue, 1992)
The Cure in Oxford, February 1992
NIELSVANIPEREN/GETTYIMAGES
UNIVERSAL
8/10
Robert Smith opens the vault for this 30thanniversary reissue. By Piers Martin
THE trouble with a masterpiece like Disintegration is that at some point you have to follow it up. Released on Robert Smith’s 33rd birthday – April 21, 1992 – Wish turned out to be the perfect mix of light and shade. Any gloomier and The Cure would have been accused of milking the misery when there wasn’t much around – Disintegration had been wildly successful, establishing them as a stadium act around the world, despite Smith’s best intentions – and they’d already let their hair down with 1990’s irreverent (and prescient) remix collection Mixed Up. Indeed, it was while recording Mixed Up’s lead single “Never Enough”, slathered in Porl Thompson’s guitar, that Smith remembered how much fun playing together as a band could be, especially now Lol Tolhurst was out of the picture.