When it came to working on The Top, The Cure was far from it. Robert Smith had been close to abandoning the band once already, and the safety net of Siouxsie and the Banshees can be heard here. The Top is a less-than focused effort from Smith and the band, at this point a revolving door of interested parties, coming and going as they felt sidelined or impartial to the sound The Cure aimed for. After the tame but fulfilling Japanese Whispers, The Cure needed an album which would define their steps toward a new sound. They hit on it well with Pornography but sound scared of their influences by the time The Top is developed. Instead of those gothic rock tones which define the band today, there is a fusion of lighter pop thrills and new wave suggestiveness which Smith would write off at the time as lightweight pop. He was right then, and it remains true for The Top.
Those new wave structures are just a guise for darker pangs of instrumental effectiveness. The Top opens with a shriek of laughter, a demand to wake yourself up from the dark components. Whether it is a knock at those previous works which had tensions in the studio running high or a chance for Smith to distance himself from that sound, temporarily that is, makes no difference on opener Shake Dog Shake. Hangovers of gothic rock are heard and struck well in a post-punk environment. Shake Dog Shake certainly feels like the best The Top has to offer. This is not just a post-punk and new wave blur, though. Those pangs of gothic rock are not just filler or fodder for The Cure at this stage. It may feel as though the band was coming apart, but even in those times of crisis, it sounded as though Smith was slowly but surely piecing together a new image.
The Top may not represent much of The Cure we know today, but in its sound and direction comes a superb creative flow. Jagged pieces like The Birdman Girl or brooding material heard on Wailing Wall secure this hopeful future. Contrasting tones feel like lucid experiences here. Joyous tears, abandoned streets and their effect on Smith, who finds himself isolated after a period of transition in the band. Within the contrast The Top hopes to find, be it with the desire for isolation despite its consequences on Give Me It or the desire to slow down with Dressing Up, there is a fluid next step in Smith’s writing style. This is an album of contrasting emotions, of not knowing where the next step will come from but being sure of the road ahead. Smith flutters between the two states and out comes one of his more adventurous works with The Cure, albeit a bit mangled.
Smith and what remains of The Cure, at this stage in their career, appears unconvinced by one direction or another. They know where the sounds of The Top will take them, and while there is little conviction in pursuing it, the songs themselves are frequently great. Carnival chills on The Caterpillar toy with instrumental tension yet find a way to bring in a plodding, upbeat tone too. Smith maintains his lyrical joys, the ever-present constant of The Cure was his writing. That does not change here. Piggy in the Mirror continues this – the fine blur of lighter sounds and darker tones is an inevitable but wonderful constant for The Top. Influences on The Cure for The Top are clear. At best, it makes for a fascinating listen where the lyrical and instrumental charms of the band are revised, however brief it may have been.
