Track Listing

1. Kiss
2. Catch
3. Torture
4. If Only Tonight We Could Sleep
5. Why Can't I Be You
6. How Beautiful You Are...
7. Snakepit
8. Just Like Heaven
9. Hot Hot Hot
10. All I Want
11. One More Time
12. Like Cockatoos
13. Icing Sugar Smooth
14. Perfect Girl
15. Thousand Hours
16. Shiver And Shake
17. Fight

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #88942 in Music
• Released on: 2001-03-19
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Released in 1987, at the height of the compact-disc revolution, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me is the prototypical CD album. Cure architect Robert Smith knew that the newly popular format could handle almost twice as much music as LPs, and he wasn't about to waste the space. Unfortunately, many of Kiss Me's 17 tracks sound more like B-sides. The cream is certainly worth culling, however; "Catch", "How Beautiful You Are", and the alternative-rock staple "Just Like Heaven" are among the Cure's finest moments. "Hot Hot Hot!!!" and "Why Can't I Be You?" reveal that underneath all the dyed-black hair and glum stares lay a fervent dance band. Who knew? --Bill Crandall

CD Description
This hefty double album often sounds more like a compilation than a coherent whole, with musical ideas bouncing frantically back and forth. Nevertheless, in typical Cure style, KISS ME, KISS ME, KISS ME successfully combines catchy pop with bitter despair. Through 17 immensely sensual songs, RobertSmith is at his most poetic ("strange as angels, dancing inthe deepest ocean, twisting in the water, you're just like a dream") and vitriolic ("get your fucking voice out of my head...I never wanted any of this, I wish you were dead"). The joyous pop of "Just Like Heaven" and "The Perfect Girl" still delights, and the frisson provided by "Shiver And Shake"reinforces the physical nature of this collection.

Customer Reviews

Are you telling me you don't already own this ?
This album caused quite a stir within the music media when it was released (1987). Just two years earlier The Cure had finally broken through as a major commercial act, following six years of trying their best not to, and the prospect of a double album (as was the form it's original vinyl release took) from these unexpected megastars got more than a few people quite excited.

All their expectations were fulfilled, the album containing 4 bona fide hit singles and 13 other classics, many of which could have been suitable choices for singles.

The album kicks off with The Kiss, a heavy wah-wah driven track - the full 6:17 of wild guitar (with few repeating phrases) being performed in one take by vocalist Robert Smith rather than guitarist Porl Thompson, which surprised many given Porl's reputation as the "solo" guitarist out of what was a 2-guitar line up (Smith and Thompson). After this, we move into Catch, a mediterranean style piece of pop which is acknowledged by most Cure fans as being one of their greatest singles.

The opening two tracks set the pace for the rest of the album really. The 17 songs pretty much go from rock/sort-of psychedelic to pop back to rock/sort-of psychedelic back to pop, and so on throughout the album.

This is a concept that the band employed years later for Wild Mood Swings (1996), however on that particular album it doesn't really work simply because most of the songs just aren't strong enough to carry it off.

On Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me it works brilliantly though.

Like I said, most of the songs could have been singles, and of the songs that couldn't (i.e. the rockier or sort-of psychedelic stuff) are all absolute classics as well, so there aren't any problems with mixing and matching styles. I think the main reason it works so well is because it was unexpected that they would do this, whereas with Wild Mood Swings they made quite a contrite effort to actively do the same thing, even suggesting in interviews that this was their goal.

A quick run through of the songs reveals rocky stuff such as The Kiss, Torture, All I Want, Shiver And Shake and Fight (heavily inspired by Led Zeppelin's Kashmir - blame Porl Thompson who went on to play with Page and Plant !!), the pure guitar pop of Catch, Why Can't I Be You, How Beautiful You Are, Just Like Heaven, Hot Hot Hot, The Perfect Girl, and psychedelic trancey stuff like One More Time, A Thousand Hours, The Snakepit, and the middle-eastern flavoured If Only Tonight We Could Sleep (very Kula Shaker - except about 10 years before they did it!!)

This is the album where Smith's lyrics really started to become extremely sharp and polished, and his lyrics have been some of the best in the world from this point onwards (although he sings way too much about relationships for my tastes - his subject matter is ocassionally a bit limited). His voice really started to take on a maturity in that his singing here is the best it had ever been up to this point, although he still manages to put on the weirdest interpretation of a soul singer on Hot Hot Hot (don't worry, it actually works - it's not as bad as it sounds, in fact it's quite good !)

This is an absolute classic album and at 17 songs in length (72 minutes running time) is a great value purchase that any self-respecting guitar music fan (of the indie/alternative variety of course) must have in his or her collection.

I cannot recommend this album any higher.

Just like Heaven for fans of The Cure
Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me is one of my favorite Cure albums. It’s packed with great music and has a discernible atmosphere that distinguishes it from most other alternative music. The Cure was a big part of my teenaged years, and this music sounds as good today as it did back then. Just Like Heaven and Hot Hot Hot!!! are the two tracks most likely to be familiar to the uninitiated, the first song catching the group at one of their more mainstream (yet unique) moments and the latter proving that The Cure could appeal to a wider audience while remaining perfectly and distinctively themselves. My nod for best song on the album, though, would go to Why Can’t I Be You? which is actually quite upbeat and danceable (if you’re so inclined). This song is one of several that deliver a virtual cacophony of sound, including prominent horns against the familiar background sounds of the band. Catch, How Beautiful You Are, and The Perfect Girl have an infectious, ditty-like quality to them, breaking the music free from the clinging maudlin environment one expects to find front man Robert Smith in much of the time. Of course, melancholia exists among these tracks as well. If Only Tonight We Could Sleep is a slow, sentimental song which sounds wonderful until you get to One More Time, which outdoes it in poignancy. And then you get to A Thousand Hours; if ever a Cure song could be called beautiful, this is the one. Robert Smith says more in a few words than most singers do over the course of an entire album. When Smith sings “For how much longer can I howl into this wind, for how much longer can I cry like this?” I find myself quite moved every time; the vocals are raw and impassioned and seem to incorporate so much anxiety and angst into them that the overall effect is incredible. I don’t want you to think that the guys went soft on this album, though: Torture is a release of pent-up feelings, Shiver and Shake tells it like it is, and the final track Fight energizes each past, former, or future Cure addict to be who you are and who you want to be regardless of what others may think of you.

You may actually want to look for the tape rather than the CD of this particular album. While the CD is quite long, extending well over an hour, the tape contains one track not included on the CD: Hey You. It’s actually one of my favorite songs on the album, full of bounce and inspiration, even though it isn’t very long in duration. There is really more variety to be found on this album than on most other Cure releases, and I think this is the best selection with which to introduce today’s generation to the music we thirtysomethings indulged in during our youth. I would still have to name Disintegration as the group’s best album, but I really believe Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me is their most appealing offering.

Gothic Masterpiece
It can be hard to tell what the main theme is to this album. Love or death. On a lighter note, Robert Smith provides us with some superb, pop rock songs like "Just Like Heaven" and provides us with catchy dance beats to songs like "Hot Hot Hot!!!" displaying muscial genius along the way. On a darker side, Smith portrays the darker side of love with epic and truelly gothic tracks like "the kiss" and "the snakepit". The album plays out like a balanced argument displaying the joy and happiness of love and the pain and torture of rejection when i can not be found. This album is fantastic to buy because it suits two main moods; happiness and depresion. The only downside to the album is perhaps the quality of Robert Smith's vocals on certain songs where he is clearly lacking the quality heard in 1985's "The Head On The Door". Nevertheless, this album is perfect for anyone into pop/alternative rock or someone who wants to see what The Cure have to offer.