The Top (album)

The Top
Studio album by The Cure
Released 30 April 1984
Recorded 1983–1984 at Genetic, Garden Studios and Trident
Genre Gothic rock, post-punk, new wave, psychedelic rock
Length 40:55
Label Fiction, Polydor Records
Producer David M. Allen, Chris Parry, Robert Smith
The Cure chronology
Pornography
(1982)		 The Top
(1984)		 The Head on the Door
(1985)
Singles from The Top
  1. "The Caterpillar"
    Released: 26 March 1984
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[2]
Melody MakerVery favourable[3]
Pitchfork Media6.9/10[4]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[5]
Sounds[6]
Stylus MagazineD+[7]

The Top is the fifth studio album by English band The Cure, released on 30 April 1984 by Fiction Records, on Polydor. After recording a psychedelic album Blue Sunshine for the one-off project The Glove during the summer 1983, Robert Smith finished off the year composing and working on two other studio albums at the same time: The Top for the Cure and Hyæna for Siouxsie and the Banshees. Smith was still the official guitarist of Siouxsie and the Banshees while he wrote The Top. The album was eclectic and saw Smith using all kinds of instruments, including violin and flute. "Bird Mad Girl" is in a Spanish style while "The Wailing Wall" contains Middle-Eastern undertones. Critic Jack barron described the opening track "Shake Dog Shake" as "Urbane metal".[6]

For The Top, Smith teamed up with another Cure founding member Lol Tolhurst whom had given up drums for keyboards, and new member drummer Andy Anderson whom had previously performed on the UK top 10 single "The Lovecats". Porl Thompson was credited for playing saxophone on "Give Me It". All the songs are credited by Smith bar three tracks co-written with Tolhurst, "The Caterpillar", "Bird Mad Girl" and "Piggy in the Mirror". Upon its release, the reaction in the British press was good: the album was praised by the Melody Maker for its "Psychedelia that can't be dated",[3] whereas it was rated 2.5 stars out of 5 by Sounds which nevertheless prophesied: "In 20 years time, when the next generation blush with excitement about the word psychedelic, it'll be regarded as a classic".[6]

The Top was a commercial success in 1984: it peaked at No. 10 on the UK Albums Chart.[8] "The Caterpillar" was the sole single released from the album.

2006 re-release

The album was re-released August 8, 2006 in the U.S. and August 14 in the UK.

The second disc has four previously unreleased tracks ("You Stayed", "Ariel", "A Hand Inside My Mouth" – lyrics from which were eventually used in "Inbetween Days" and "Six Different Ways" – and "Sadicic", which was repurposed as "New Day"), three live performances, and studio outtakes/demos of nine of the ten songs on the original album (and of "Happy the Man" and "Throw Your Foot", final versions of which were released as B-sides on the single "The Caterpillar"). A mastering error which resulted in "Bananafishbones" playing a semitone lower than intended was corrected on this 2006 re-release, with the correct pitch of the song restored.


Track listing

All songs by Robert Smith, except where noted.

Original 1984 release

Side A

  1. "Shake Dog Shake" – 4:55
  2. "Bird Mad Girl" (Smith, Tolhurst) – 4:05[9]
  3. "Wailing Wall" – 5:17
  4. "Give Me It" – 3:42
  5. "Dressing Up" – 2:51

Side B

  1. "The Caterpillar" (Smith, Tolhurst) – 3:40
  2. "Piggy in the Mirror" (Smith, Tolhurst) – 3:40
  3. "The Empty World" – 2:36
  4. "Bananafishbones" – 3:12
  5. "The Top" – 6:50

2006 "Deluxe Edition"

Disc one

  1. "Shake Dog Shake"
  2. "Birdmad Girl"[9]
  3. "Wailing Wall"
  4. "Give Me It"
  5. "Dressing Up"
  6. "The Caterpillar"
  7. "Piggy In The Mirror"
  8. "The Empty World"
  9. "Bananafishbones"
  10. "The Top"

[10]

Disc two

  1. "You Stayed..." (Robert Smith home demo 8/82) – 2:21
  2. "Ariel" (Robert Smith home demo 8/82) – 2:58
  3. "A Hand Inside My Mouth" (Des Dames Studio demo 8/83) – 3:40
  4. "Sadacic" (Olympic Studio Robert Smith demo 12/83) – 4:17
  5. "Shake Dog Shake" (Garden/Eden Studios Robert Smith and Andy Anderson demo 12/83) – 4:56
  6. "Piggy in the Mirror" (Garden/Eden Studios Robert Smith and Andy Anderson demo 12/83) – 3:40
  7. "Birdmad Girl" (Garden/Eden Studios Robert Smith and Andy Anderson demo 12/83) – 3:36
  8. "Give Me It" (Garden/Eden Studios Robert Smith and Andy Anderson demo 12/83) – 3:43
  9. "Throw Your Foot" (Garden/Eden Studios Robert Smith and Andy Anderson demo 12/83) – 3:31
  10. "Happy the Man" (Garden/Eden Studios Robert Smith and Andy Anderson demo 12/83) – 2:46
  11. "The Caterpillar" (Garden/Eden Studios Robert Smith and Andy Anderson demo 12/83) – 4:17
  12. "Dressing Up" (Genetic Studio guide vocal/rough mix 2/84) – 2:14
  13. "Wailing Wall" (Genetic Studio rough mix 2/84) – 4:59
  14. "The Empty World" (live bootleg - Hammersmith Odeon 5/84) – 2:47
  15. "Bananafishbones" (live bootleg - Hammersmith Odeon 5/84) – 2:57
  16. "The Top" (live bootleg - Hammersmith Odeon 5/84) – 7:13
  17. "Forever (version)" (live bootleg - Zenith Paris 5/84) – 4:58

Personnel

The Cure
Additional musicians

Production

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Year Chart Position
1984 The Billboard 200 180

References

  1. ↑ True, Chris. "The Top – The Cure". AllMusic. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  2. ↑ Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-857-12595-8.
  3. 1 2 Sutherland, Steve (5 May 1984). "Topsy-Turvy [The Top – review]". Melody Maker.
  4. ↑ Abebe, Nitsuh (25 August 2006). "The Cure / Robert Smith: The Top / The Head on the Door / Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me / Blue Sunshine". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
  5. ↑ Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian, eds. (2004). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 205–06. ISBN 0-743-20169-8.
  6. 1 2 3 Barron, Jack (5 May 1984), The Top review, Sounds
  7. ↑ Inskeep, Thomas (20 November 2006). "The Cure – The Top / The Head on the Door / Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me – Review". Stylus Magazine. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
  8. ↑ "Cure UK Charts". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  9. 1 2 Sometimes spelled "Birdmad girl" like in the 2006 Deluxe edition, "Bird Mad Girl" is the title found on the original LP, on later re-releases as well as on The Cure's official website.
  10. ↑ "The Top - Deluxe Edition: The Cure: Amazon.co.uk: Music". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 2012-03-12.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, May 05, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.