The Top is an album by The Cure that I’m not entirely fussed on. However, I don’t like being a cock about music so I’ll be a decent person and be nice. I can be nice. Nice is a terrible word, and a terrible thing to be. The word has no meaning. I’ve basically done myself no favours with this opening paragraph. Basically, I’m not a fan of their fifth album but I’ll do my best to be positive about it because I don’t like negative vibes. There. That’s better.

The Top could pretty much be seen as a Robert Smith solo album. He plays pretty much every instrument on this record aside from the drums. It is also the first album without his chum, Simon Gallup. He left the band after a wee fight. No, it wasn’t over eyeliner. Don’t be daft.

Personally, I’ve found the previous four albums easy to listen to; even if they were utterly dark. But this one, I don’t know. It doesn’t move me like the others did. Maybe it’s because for so long all my attention was aimed at Seventeen Seconds and Faith, I didn’t really allow myself to enjoy the rest of the albums properly. But, when you have such an emotional connection witha record it is hard to part yourself from it and love another just as much. I was going to make some kind of comparison to relationships, then decided not to. I think my description is easy to understand, I don’t need to expand on it I don’t think.

One of my favourite things about this record is the haunting guitar and twisted lyrics of Shake Dog Shake. “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.” It is such a fucked up verse, and I love it dearly. I love the way it just warps your mind and takes over your thoughts. It’s such a bloody powerful song. So dark, so twisted.

Although this record is not my favourite, I can fully appreciate that is still is a solid record. I cannot say that it is bad, because it isn’t. I’m just not a fan of the sound on it. I prefer the drunken, dark side to The Cure that is found on the second and third record. One song that has this same feel on The Top is Wailing Wall. I love how creepy it sounds and how perverse Robert Smith’s voice is. I don’t mean it in a “come here little boy, I have some Haribo in my van” kind of way. I mean it in a deviant, creepy sense. It’s such a menacing song. Robert doesn’t sing songs, he tells stories. That is evident on this track. Probably my favourite on the album.

It is bloody hard to write ill of The Cure, and I feel bad for not loving this record as much as I love others. I can’t like everything, no one can. That’d be silly. Others may regard it as their best work, and I can honestly see the genius within it; but my heart belongs to their other records.