The 1981 Listening Post - The Cure - Faith

The 1981 Listening Post The Cure - Faith

1981

#157

By John Bland

The Cure
Faith

Genre: Post-Punk/New Wave/Goth
Allen’s Rating: 4 out of 5

John’s Rating: 4 out of 5

Highlights:
Primary
Other Voices
Doubt
The Drowning Man
Faith 

When I was in high school, I had a massive crush on a Goth girl. Being as non-Goth as it was possibly to be at the time (my sartorial preferences wavered between neo-Preppy and paleo-Preppy), I rushed to the nearest thrift store and stocked up on black overcoats, used black Doc Maartens, black sweaters, black vests, black t-shirts and assorted random accoutrements to pin on said overcoats and vests. I put on eyeliner but only ended up looking like somebody had punched me in the face twice. I slathered my hair in Dippity Do. I moped around. I freaked the fuck out of my parents. 

I bought a couple Cure cassettes, and pretended to know what they were singing about. 

Goth Girl ended up dating somebody on the football team. (I mean, what the fuck!?) I went back to my Preppy ways and abandoned any pretenses of melancholy. Well, until I got to college and took a poetry class. 

‘Faith’ is a pretty depressing album... and much, much too short. It’s really good, but it is not Music To Play in The Middle of a Pandemic. If my high school self had really listened to this, I mean, REALLY listened to it, and not just flashed around copies of the cassette so a certain girl would THINK I’d listened to it... well, actually I’m glad I didn’t, because high school was depressing enough as it was. 

https://open.spotify.com/album/1qL9O6xT5zW2h4JtWaT2us?si=j_Apo16KT7Kco4LT63AsPw