Bloodflowers

Over the years the Cure touched on many different styles. They’d started as a punk-pop group that receded into ethereal despair that then mutated into raging goth and suddenly discovered uplifting dancefloor-friendly pop and ‘80s-90s psychedelic shimmers. But Cure critics and fans always favored a delicate blend of singer Robert Smith’s pop instincts and his grandiose epic visions. Smith knew this and posited 2000’s Bloodflowers as the final part of a trilogy that included 1982’s Pornography and 1988’s Disintegration. Again, he would indulge in songs that took five-plus minutes to sufficiently unfold and that dwelled in the group’s slower, hypnotic range. He succeeded, since “Out of This World,” the 11-minute “Watching Me Fall,” and “The Last Day of Summer” work over their guitar and keyboard riffs with a death grip’s finality. These are not songs meant to be taken lightly and their intense emotionalism against the Cure’s unyielding wall of sound — sometimes psychedelic, always brooding — makes for solid Goth throughout.