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8.0
82
8.0 |
Blender
Smith has returned to familiar topics: nightmares, perverse sex, existential ruin. Here’s the new soundtrack to Saturday night.
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8.0
83
8.0 |
Evening Standard
This is a big guitar record: the six-string blizzard of It’s Over and the wah-wah squalls of Switch are particularly notable.
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8.0
84
8.0 |
NME
This album suggests a re-engagement with the popular music scene, if not an act of war.
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8.0
90
8.0 |
Uncut
It may sound unkind to say, but if he is unwell, let’s hope he remains that way. Because as long as Robert Smith is suffering, there will always be a Cure.
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7.0
86
7.0 |
Rolling Stone
There is none of the rag-doll bounce of the Cure's late-Eighties hits. The guitar overture in ""Underneath the Stars"" is closer to electric Neil Young than fey gloom.
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6.7
85
6.7 |
Pitchfork
If the Cure were debuting today with this record, they'd be celebrated for Smith's voice, still incredible, alone.
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6.0
87
6.0 |
Spin
Even if he never wins back the Interpol/Bright Eyes bystanders he lost with 2004's overly heavy, underachieving self-titled punt, Smith finally rewards longtime fans with a proper Cure album.
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6.0
88
6.0 |
The List
Sidesteps the wondrous dirges in favour of a live sounding, stripped back quartet. The results are quirky and occasionally... but Smith doesn’t fully harness the drama and dynamic potential that previous highs have.
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6.0
89
6.0 |
The Quietus
On this, their 13th album it is the over-ambitious knob-twiddling, rather than any other consideration, that has let the album down. The annoying thing is that you know these songs are going to sound good live and perhaps that's the point.
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