The Cure

For their first album ever away from Fiction, their UK home label since the late ’70s, the Cure almost seemed to be wanting a fresh start with a self-titled release and a radical shift in choice of producers by going with Ross Robinson, coming off a string of nu-metal album smashes. The Cure as an album isn’t about the nookie, thankfully, but it’s an often intriguing mix, from the single “The End of the World,” hinting at their past 1980s hits, to more angry, building tunes such as “Lost” and the ever more tightly winding “The Promise,” one of their longest songs.