This came out in 2000 — or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
When Robert Smith whinges, “I know we have to go, I realize we only get to stay so long,” seconds into The Cure’s new album, you can be forgiven for rolling your eyes.
After all, Smith — the guru of gloom to raccoon-eyed, pasty-faced, black-clad teens the world over — has been hinting/threatening for years to disband his pioneering goth outfit. Bloodflowers, the band’s 13th disc, is the latest “last Cure album.” It should be — not that it’s bad. Quite the opposite; if Smith is looking for the right time to bow out, it’s after a masterwork like this powerful and near-perfect song cycle. Disposing with the shallow pop that has too often captured his attention in recent years, Robert returns to gloriously glum form, wallowing in a sea of exquisite agony and lament as he gets tossed by waves of richly textured, darkly passionate post-punk guaranteed to renew the faith of every fan. “When we look back at it all, as I know we will,” he asks, “will we really remember how it felt to be this alive?” After this, we just might.
