The Cure, "Wish" (1992)

NICK DERISO: "Wish" is a record I never came to grips with.

On the one hand, it might have been called a return to form for the Cure, "like throwing arms 'round yesterday," as Robert Smith sang here on "A Letter To Elise."

Back then, I took offense to such things.

After all, the Cure had already made this record once, in 1987. In fact, the similarities with "Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me" are striking, right down to the swooping opening track and the one or two icky-sticky radio-ready tunes.

At this point, the Cure's last album of original work had been the brilliant, if terrificly depressing, "Disintegration" from 1989. Then described as the band's last album, it was a monsoon of pouting -- and the kind of textured masterwork so interesting since it seemed to be produced by someone trying to get through something.

By way of contrast, the occasionally frivolous "Wish" featured Smith doing something called "the unstuck."

To be honest, though, the band's next release after "Disintegration" hadn't so much broken new ground as till up some familiar soil. 1990's "Mixed Up" was a collection of Cure singles handed over to various producers to be fiddled with.

Smith, in contemporary interviews, said he had done it to yank chains. Considering that "Mixed Up" included a house mix of a Cure song, consider it yanked.

Still, "Wish" backed out of both of those promises. It neither explored songs as canvases, nor overtly challenged the group's core fanbase.

That said, "Wish" rocks. The Cure finally -- finally -- dumped largely talent-free founding member Laurence Tolhurst, who had been relegated to "other instruments" on "Disintegration." Added was former Cure roadie Perry Bamonte.

Evidently, the kid liked to play. Almost every track had a guitar for its spine.

That's helped this album age surprisingly well. Where "Disintegration" shimmered, "Wish" screeched -- and that doesn't seem like such a bad thing anymore.