Two years after the band's renaissance through the upbeat, uplifting HEAD ON THE DOOR and the change it brought, in comparison with the band's previous recordings (THE TOP, PORNOGRAPHY), and one year following the massive success of the STANDING ON A BEACH singles and respective video tape, the Cure completed the global Beach tour and entered the studio in southern France to record in isolation the next album.

So it came to be the double extravangaza of KISS ME KISS ME KISS ME, the endless title only a hint at the endless track list: two vinyls, eighteen songs, and adding the B sides of the 4 (!) singles released from the album, reaching nearly 25 songs. The cover features Robert's now classic lipstick-smudged kiss, in full zoom and maximum effect.

KMKMKM is a very strange record. It is the very album whose massive sales propelled their stardom in both sides of the Atlantic and secured a series of sold out appearances in stadiums and arenas. Obviously, this has to do with the success of the singles, especially the MTV-enthroned video for "Just like heaven", introducing Smith's lyrical obsessions to an image-ruled audience of the second half of the 1980s.

Digging a little deeper, though, and actually listening to the album, reveals many different paths. Other than the successful, babbling singles and the videoclips, there is also a majority of 'romantic sorrowful' compositions, and a number of darker, edgier compositions with Robert's chaotic images brought to life by outstanding performances.

For instance, the opener "The kiss" introduces wah wah pedals and guitar playing totally different from what the band had established in the past. It takes nearly 4 minutes before Robert starts singing, though its more an enraged narration rather than singing: "Kiss me kiss me kiss me, your tongue like poison so swollen it fills up my mouth, just love me love me love me, nail me to the floor and push my guts out as I laugh, get it out, get your fucking voice out of my head, I never wanted this, never wanted any of this, I wish you were dead".

The first side of the first vinyl also includes "Catch", "Torture" and "If only tonight we could sleep", each built on a different mood. "Catch", one the four singles, is a romantic pop song, with innovations such as violin. It's not exactly my favorite song, but people like it, so...

"Torture" is a rockier song, with keyboards adding mood and character, and the singer's echoed description of "another treacherous night"--the song has some really nice work from Tolhurst. "It's torture, but I am almost there"--and it is something so familiar, deep inside.. "If only tonight we could sleep, in a bed made of flowers, if only tonight we could sink into deep black water..." unfolds the first side's best song, a haunting ballad built on Williams' clever drum patter, Gallup's ominous bass and various guitar fills fueled to echoed overdrive and cascading lead melodies. The singing is excellent, the broken voice transmitting all emotions at once--and hitting the center.

The second side opens with the frenetically happy "Why can't I be you?" which is something like a 1987 hymn, built on all stereotypes of the era--yet it is a killer composition, you can't resist its charm and conviction. "you're so perfect"! The following "How beautiful you are" is less commercial but equally accessible and perfectly structured: mid tempo, with romantic piano-sounding synth lines from Tolhurst and some of Robert's most clever lyrics ever, about a stroll in Paris at night leading to some unpleasant conclusions about love and life.

The "snakepit" is like an outtake from THE TOP. Lenghtier, darker, with harrowing blends of melodies and effects in the background, like the perfectly disturbing set for the inward rage of the voice, blurred images of lust, drinking haze and loss of hope, of meaning in everything.

The first vinyl ends with the bizarre bouncing pop of "Hey you", one of the few Cure songs I can't help but ignore.

The second vinyl continues exploring these vast different moods and emotions: the first side has the singles "Just like heaven" and "Hot hot hot!!!" next to the darker "Like cockatoos", with the romantic "All I want" and "One more time" in-between.

Of all these songs, my favorite is "One more time", with the fantastic performance of Smith and his words of child-like innocence and emotion and Tolhurst's broad use of synthesizers above Thompson's acoustic chords and the mid tempo rhythm section. The other songs are all very good, each in its own mood, the romantic perfection of "Just like heaven", the 80s disco-rock of "hot hot hot"-another atypical Cure composition, the somber soundscapes of "Like cockatoos" with a blend of effects and guitars, and the sorrowful ballad chords of "All I want".

The second side holds some of the album's finer moments: opening with the experimentations of "Icing sugar", a very odd song which could have been a B side to "Caterpillar", then the happy-poppy "Perfect girl" which reminds me of some latter compositions included in WISH, and which is a song I don't really connect myself to, the shivering,icy narration of "A thousand hours", the fast rage/shaking anger of "Shiver and shake" and the magnum opus of "Fight" in the end, which is my favorite song from this side.

As it has been described, this is a very difficult album to digest, in terms of the many different moods explored here. On the other hand, the domination of the singles has given this album a tag of "the commercial one". I think, however, that such a definition would better describe HOTD rather than KISS ME. This is a chaotic album with all styles at one, and the darker songs are buried by the most famous and accessible ones. Dig a little deeper, and there's treasure to find.

"Don't let it end".