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THE CURE | 25 Songs, 25 Stories: Behind the Music
141 pages, Paperback
Published May 18, 2026
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 9, 2026
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I want to share a little bit of background about me to help frame what I am about to write. I became an (obsessive?) fan of the Cure when I was 15 years old. That is more years ago than I like to admit. For the rest of my teens and into my mid-twenties, being a Cure fan was an integral part of my identity. I listened to their albums *constantly*. The lyrics are imprinted on my brain. I can easily call up songs in my head and quote the entire thing.
This is why I am absolutely baffled by this book. How do you publish an entire book about a band and get the lyrics wrong? And not just one, but several times.
One of the 25 songs that the author discusses is “Lovecats.” He mentions in the discussion the line “we move like tigers on Vaseline.” Um, what? I was seriously confused, because I did not remember that line at all. I ran through the lyrics in my head and didn’t find it, so I played the song. It was not there. I even looked up the lyrics online just to make sure that I did not miss it somehow. Nope. The only reference to tigers in the song is when Robert Smith sings “we move like cagey tigers.” The author doesn’t just mention this line in an offhand way, though. He goes on and on about how it’s so perfect and how other people wish they had written something so good. So this is not just a casual mistake. He’s all in on this.
Then when the author discusses “A Night Like This,” he mentions that Smith sings “Say that you’ll stay forever this way.” Again, no. A couple pages later while discussing the same song, the author says Smith “begins” with the line “I never said I would stay to the end.” No, sir. That line is from “Disintegration,” a song on an album that came out 5 years after The Head on the Door (which is what “A Night Like This” is on). I was doubting myself, though, because this guy published a book. So I did the same routine as I did with “Lovecats” (ran through the lyrics in my head, played the song, looked up the lyrics online). Still wrong.
Then when the author gets around to discussing the song “Disintegration,” he doubles down on the claim that the line “I never said I would stay to the end” is in “A Night Like This” when he says that Smith revisits the line in “Disintegration.” Again, these are not just casual mistakes. The author is saying these things from his chest.
I really don’t know what to do with this mess. The only thing I can think of is that there are some alternate versions of the songs that he is referencing. (Maybe U.K.-only releases or something? I am not aware of the existence of such, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist, I suppose.) But I doubt this somehow. If that is the case, he should probably note it to avoid confusion.
I want to share a little bit of background about me to help frame what I am about to write. I became an (obsessive?) fan of the Cure when I was 15 years old. That is more years ago than I like to admit. For the rest of my teens and into my mid-twenties, being a Cure fan was an integral part of my identity. I listened to their albums *constantly*. The lyrics are imprinted on my brain. I can easily call up songs in my head and quote the entire thing.
This is why I am absolutely baffled by this book. How do you publish an entire book about a band and get the lyrics wrong? And not just one, but several times.
One of the 25 songs that the author discusses is “Lovecats.” He mentions in the discussion the line “we move like tigers on Vaseline.” Um, what? I was seriously confused, because I did not remember that line at all. I ran through the lyrics in my head and didn’t find it, so I played the song. It was not there. I even looked up the lyrics online just to make sure that I did not miss it somehow. Nope. The only reference to tigers in the song is when Robert Smith sings “we move like cagey tigers.” The author doesn’t just mention this line in an offhand way, though. He goes on and on about how it’s so perfect and how other people wish they had written something so good. So this is not just a casual mistake. He’s all in on this.
Then when the author discusses “A Night Like This,” he mentions that Smith sings “Say that you’ll stay forever this way.” Again, no. A couple pages later while discussing the same song, the author says Smith “begins” with the line “I never said I would stay to the end.” No, sir. That line is from “Disintegration,” a song on an album that came out 5 years after The Head on the Door (which is what “A Night Like This” is on). I was doubting myself, though, because this guy published a book. So I did the same routine as I did with “Lovecats” (ran through the lyrics in my head, played the song, looked up the lyrics online). Still wrong.
Then when the author gets around to discussing the song “Disintegration,” he doubles down on the claim that the line “I never said I would stay to the end” is in “A Night Like This” when he says that Smith revisits the line in “Disintegration.” Again, these are not just casual mistakes. The author is saying these things from his chest.
I really don’t know what to do with this mess. The only thing I can think of is that there are some alternate versions of the songs that he is referencing. (Maybe U.K.-only releases or something? I am not aware of the existence of such, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist, I suppose.) But I doubt this somehow. If that is the case, he should probably note it to avoid confusion.
Displaying 1 of 1 review