The Cure “The Top” 1984. Today, April 21st, is Robert Smith’s birthday (b. 1959). “The Top” has always been one of my favorite and seemingly least-talked about earlyish Cure albums so what a great, if perfectly Cure-worthy gloomy, day for a listen.

Most of the album’s tracks paint a picture of deliciously cold and windy nights in a sparse woods, chancing upon a deserted graveyard or broken ancient manor. There are snatches of pop (”The Caterpillar”) which The Cure would evolve more fully on later albums (”Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me”), but overall The Top is a soundtrack for a 2:00 a.m. solo drive through the dark wide roads of your soul.