Cure Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me: Deluxe Edition CD

Additional Tracks; Deluxe Edition

The Cure: Robert Smith (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Porl Thompson (guitar, saxophone, keyboards); Laurence Tolhurst (keyboards); Simon Gallup (bass guitar); Boris Williams (drums); Roger O'Donnell.
Simultaneously more accessible and ambitious than any of the Cure's previous albums, the double album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me finds Robert Smith expanding his pop vocabulary by tentatively adding bigger guitars, the occasional horn section, lite-funk rhythms, and string sections. It's eclectic, to be sure, but it's also a mess, bouncing from idea to idea and refusing to develop some of the most intriguing detours. Even if Kiss Me doesn't quite gel, its best moments -- including the deceptively bouncy "Why Can't I Be You?" and the stately "Just Like Heaven" -- are remarkable and help make the album one of the group's very best. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
This hefty double album often sounds more like a compilation than a coherent whole, with musical ideas bouncing frantically back and forth. Nevertheless, in typical Cure style, KISS ME, KISS ME, KISS ME successfully combines catchy pop with bitter despair. Through 17 immensely sensual songs, Robert Smith is at his most poetic ("strange as angels, dancing in the deepest ocean, twisting in the water, you're just like a dream") and vitriolic ("get your fucking voice out of my head...I never wanted any of this, I wish you were dead"). The joyous pop of "Just Like Heaven" and "The Perfect Girl" still delights, and the frisson provided by "Shiver And Shake" reinforces the physical nature of this collection.

Uncut (p.102) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Glossy, even sexy, here the excesses of that decade finally caught up with Smith, which he twisted into stunning pop..."
Alternative Press (p.200) - "[With] the heartfelt 'Just Like Heaven,' one of the classic alt-rock singles of the 1980s."
Magnet (p.106) - "Smith pens the prettiest pop, unleashes seven minutes of sitar-driven stonerdom, uses accordions to punctuate Parisian travelogues, plays with psychedelic Hendrixian guitar textures and -- as always -- lets bassist Simon Gallup have all the best riffs and melodies."
CMJ (1/5/04, p.20) - Ranked #3 in CMJ's "Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 1987"