The Cure

The gothic or dark genre has always divided fans between purists and heretics. The Uncut staff seem to belong to this second faction. In the new special issue of the Ultimate Record Collection series, the British magazine's editorial team has devoted a rather all-encompassing feature to the topic, starting with the ambitious and wide-ranging list titled "The 200 greatest goth albums… ranked!", which includes not only the genre's classics but also many "adjacent" works, ranging from records that influenced the birth of gothic to others that became cornerstones of not-too-distant scenes, such as synth-pop and dream-pop. The project is introduced by editor John Robinson, who, starting from the recent spat between Paul Weller and Robert Smith of The Cure, points out that what may have rankled was "the fact that Smith's band can still fill stadiums around the world today with music that's deeply personal yet, at the same time, surprisingly universal… As the authors of some of the most beloved and successful albums of the goth subculture, The Cure obviously couldn't be left out," Robinson adds. "You'll also find other classics from giants of the genre such as Nick Cave and Siouxsie And The Banshees. But what this collection offers, beyond the biggest names, is a broad panorama of music that helped define the first phase of this movement, in a period we might place between 1981 and 1989: from the rise of The Birthday Party to the release of "Disintegration"… From a stricter, more orthodox point of view, the first Cocteau Twins album or Mazzy Star's 'She Hangs Brightly' might more appropriately be filed under the dream-pop label rather than goth. Or, the sinister electronic experiments of the first Throbbing Gristle album could have found a place in these pages alongside Skinny Puppy or Nine Inch Nails," the magazine's editor further explains in the introduction. "Maybe that's true, but we're still very confident about the music included in this selection."

Below is Uncut's ranking of the 200 greatest goth albums of all time. On OndaRock you can also find our ranking of the greatest dark albums of all time, to which we've also dedicated this podcast, plus the playlist attached to this article. Our site also features an in-depth piece on the history of gothic music, based on the book "The Art Of Darkness" by John Robb, as well as another podcast focused on the neo-gothic scene of the 1990s and beyond, titled "Remnants of a deeper darkness" in tribute to Black Tape For A Blue Girl.

1. The Cure – Disintegration (1989)

2. The Sisters of Mercy – First and Last and Always (1985)

3. The Birthday Party – Prayers on Fire (1981)

4. Joy Division – Closer (1980)

5. Bauhaus – In the Flat Field (1980)

6. Siouxsie and the Banshees – Juju (1981)

7. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Tender Prey (1988)

8. The Cure – Pornography (1982)

9. Depeche Mode – Black Celebration (1986)

10. Iggy Pop – The Idiot (1977)

11. The Jesus and Mary Chain – Psychocandy (1985)

12. The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)

13. The Sisters of Mercy – Floodland (1987)

14. Nico – The Marble Index (1968)

15. PJ Harvey – To Bring You My Love (1995)

16. The Doors – The Doors (1967)

17. Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures (1979)

18. Swans – The Burning World (1989)

19. Cocteau Twins – Garlands (1982)

20. Ministry – Land Of Rape and Honey (1988)

21. Echo & the Bunnymen – Porcupine (1983)

22. The Sisterhood – Gift (1986)

23. Bulgarian State Television Female Choir – Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares (1987)

24. Siouxsie and the Banshees – Kaleidoscope (1980)

25. This Mortal Coil – It’ll End in Tears (1984)

26. Various Artists – Batcave: Young Limbs and Numb Hymns (1983)

27. The Cure – Faith (1981)

28. Julee Cruise – Floating Into The Night (1989)

29. The Cramps – Smell of Female (1983)

30. Xmal Deutschland – Tocsin (1982)

31. March Violets – Natural History (1984)

32. Interpol – Turn On The Bright Lights (2002)

33. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Your Funeral, My Trial (1986)

34. Matt Johnson – Burning Blue Soul (1986)

35. Killing Joke – Night Time (1985)

36. Sad Lovers and Giants – Epic Garden Music (1982)

37. Siouxsie and the Banshees – The Scream (1978)

38. The Psychedelic Furs – The Psychedelic Furs (1980)

39. Nine Inch Nails – Pretty Hate Machine (1989)

40. Red Lorry Yellow Lorry – Talk About the Weather (1985)

41. Sex Gang Children – Song and Legend (1983)

42. Specimen – Batastrophe (1983)

43. Skeletal Family – Futile Combat (1985)

44. The Mission – God’s Own Medicine (1986)

45. Dead Can Dance – Dead Can Dance (1984)

46. Fields of the Nephilim – The Nephilim (1988)

47. The Birthday Party – Junkyard (1982)

48. All About Ever – All About Eve (1988)

49. The Damned – The Black Album (1980)

50. The Cult – Love (1985)

51. Alien Sex Fiend – Who’s Been Sleeping In My Brain (1983)

52. The Legendary Pink Dots – Curse (1983)

53. Einsturzende Neubauten – Kollaps (1981)

54. Clan of Xymox – Clan of Xymox (1985)

55. Danielle Dax – Jesus Egg That Wept (1984)

56. Coil – Horse Rotorvator (1986)

57. Current 93 – Imperium (1987)

58. Virgin Prunes – Heresie (1982)

59. Lords of the New Church – Lords of the New Church (1982)

60. The Cure – The Top (1984)

61. The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World (2024)

62. Fields of the Nephilim – Dawnrazor (1987)

63. Flesh for Lulu – Big Fun City (1985)

64. Soft Cell – Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret (1981)

65. Love and Rockets – Express (1986)

66. Nitzer Ebb – That Total Age (1987)

67. The Rose of Avalanche – First Avalanche (1985)

68. Death Cult – Ghost Dance (1994)

69. Tubeway Army – Replicas (1979)

70. Tones of Tail – Pop (1984)

71. Virgin Prunes – …If I Die, I Die (1982)

72. The Chameleons – Script Of The Bridge (1983)

73. The Bolshoi – Giants (1985)

74. In The Nursery – When Cherished Dreams Came True (1983)

75. Crime and the City Solution – Room Of Lights (1986)

76. The Cure – Bloodflowers (2000)

77. Ghost Dance – Gathering Dust (1988)

78. Curve – Doppelgänger (1992)

79. Mazzy Star – She Hangs Brightly (1990)

80. Skinny Puppy – Remission (1984)

81. The Wake – Masked (1993)

82. Asylum Party – Borderline (1989)

83. Savage Republic – Ceremonial (1986)

84. The Creatures – Feast (1983)

85. Death in Vegas – The Contino Sessions (1999)

86. The Glove – Blue Sunshine (1983)

87. Death in June/Current 93 – 1988 (1990)

88. Gene Loves Jezebel – Promise (1983)

89. Jonathan Fire*Eater – Tremble Under Boom Lights (1986)

90. The Associates – Affectionate Punch (1979)

91. Marc and the Mambas – Torment and Toreros (1983)

92. Berlin – Pleasure Victim (1982)

93. Various Artists – Music From The Limited Event Series Twin Peaks (2017)

94. Christian Death – Only Theatre of Pain (1982)

95. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – From Her To Eternity (1984)

96. The Cure – Seventeen Seconds (1980)

97. Cocteau Twins – Head Over Heels (1983)

98. The Gun Club – The Las Vegas Story (1984)

99. Salvation – Clash of Dreams (2014)

100. Dead or Alive – Let Them Drag My Soul Away (2023)

101. Nico – Drama Of Exile (1981)

102. Diamanda Galás – You Must Be Certain Of The Devil (1988)

103. Front 242 – Geography (1982)

104. Danse Society – Heaven Is Waiting (1984)

105. The Cult – Dreamtime (1984)

106. New Order – Movement (1981)

107. Dali’s Car – The Waking Hour (1984)

108. Lemon Kittens – We Buy A Hammer for Daddy (1980)

109. Samhain – Samhain III: November-Coming-Fire (1986)

110. Miranda Sex Garden – Suspiria (1993)

111. Bauhaus – Mask (1981)

112. Modern English – Mesh & Lace (1981)

113. Peter Murphy – Love Hysteria (1988)

114. Presence – Inside (1992)

115. Theatre of Hate – Westworld (1982)

116. James Ray’s Gangwar – Dios Está De Nuestro Lado (1992)

117. Love and Rockets – Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven (1985)

118. Soft Cell – The Art of Falling Apart (1983)

119. Wasted Youth – Wild And Wandering (1981)

120. Skin – Blood, Women, Roses (1987)

121. The Birthday Party – Hee-Haw (1989)

122. Mogwai – The Hawk is Howling (2008)

123. Nick Cave – Kicking Against the Pricks (1986)

124. The Cure – The Head On The Door (1985)

125. Bauhaus – The Sky’s Gone Out (1982)

126. Depeche Mode – Violator (1990)

127. Kali Malone – The Sacrificial Code (2019)

128. Xeno & Oaklander – Sentinelle (2009)

129. Zola Jesus – The Spoils (2009)

130. Bone Orchard – Stuffed to the Gills (1983)

131. Schleimer K – Schleimer K (1981)

132. Inca Babies – Rumble (1985)

133. Anna von Hausswolff – Dead Magic (2018)

134. Marilyn Manson – Mechanical Animals (1998)

135. Dean Hurley – Concrete Feather (2021)

136. Breathless – The Glass Bead Game (1986)

137. Fields of the Nephilim – Elizium (1990)

138. PJ Harvey – Is This Desire? (1998)

139. The Legendary Pink Dots – The Golden Age (1988)

140. Nico – The End (1974)

141. Echo & the Bunnymen – Ocean Rain (1984)

142. The Stranglers – The Gospel According To The Meninblack (1981)

143. Mass – Labour of Love (1981)

144. Front 242 – Front by Front (1988)

145. Into a Circle – Assassins (1988)

146. The Essence – A Monument Of Trust (1987)

147. Danielle Dax – Blast the Human Flower (1990)

148. Cranes – Self-Non-Self (1989)

149. Xymox – Twist Of Shadows (1989)

150. Heavenly Bodies – Celestial (1988)

151. Love Spirals Downwards – Flux (1998)

152. Eyeless in Gaza – Photographs As Memories (1981)

153. 45 Grave – Sleep in Safety (1983)

154. Zero LeCrêche – Last Year's Wife (2008)

155. Depeche Mode – Memento Mori (2023)

156. Cranes – Wings Of Joy (1991)

157. Salem – King Night (2010)

158. Red Temple Spirits – Dancing To Restore An Eclipsed Moon (1988)

159. This Mortal Coil – Blood (1991)

160. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – The Firstborn Is Dead (1985)

161. The Damned – Phantasmagoria (1985)

162. Xiu Xiu – Knife Play (2002)

163. Jarboe – Thirteen Masks (1991)

164. Cindytalk – Camouflage Heart (1984)

165. London After Midnight – Psycho Magnet (1996)

166. Switchblade Symphony – Bread And Jam For Frances (1997)

167. Rowland S Howard/Lydia Lunch – Shotgun Wedding (1991)

168. Chelsea Wolfe – Hiss Spun (2017)

169. Black Tape For A Blue Girl – The Rope (1986)

170. Flesh for Lulu – Flesh For Lulu (1984)

171. Klaus Nomi – Za Bakdaz: The Unfinished Opera (2007)

172. Therion – Gothic Kabbala (2007)

173. Diamanda Galás – Saint Of The Pit (1986)

174. Mortemia – Misere Mortem (2010)

175. Rosetta Stone – An Eye For The Main Chance (1991)

176. Rubella Ballet – At Last, It's Playtime (1985)

177. Corpus Delecti – Sylphes (1994)

178. Front 242 – No Comment (1984)

179. Jarboe – Sacrificial Cake (1995)

180. Corpses as Bedmates – Venus Handcuffs (1986)

181. Princess Tinymeat – Herstory (1987)

182. Clan Of Xymox – Medusa (1986)

183. Tuxedomoon – Desire (1981)

184. HTRK – Marry Me Tonight (2009)

185. Kas Product – Try Out (1982)

186. Lives of Angels – Elevator To Eden (1983)

187. Ilitch – 10 Suicides (1980)

188. The Horrors – Strange House (2007)

189. Of A Mesh – Of A Mesh (1986)

190. Elysion – Silent Scream (2009)

191. Eyeless in Gaza – Drumming The Beating Heart (1982)

192. Sorrow – Under the Yew Possessed (1993)

193. Anne Clark – The Sitting Room (1982)

194. Diamanda Galás – The Litanies Of Satan (1982)

195. Sort Sol – Dagger & Guitar (1983)

196. Last Few Days – Pure Spirit And Saliva Live (1986)

197. Hunting Lodge – Nomad Souls (1984)

198. Phaidia – In The Dark (1985)

199. Fra Lippo Lippi – In Silence (1981)

200. Kirlian Camera – Kirlian Camera (1981)

Dark music – which, in fact, in its native England goes by the far more evocative (from a literary standpoint) name of gothic music – is one of the most fertile strands of the entire English new wave scene: through the catharsis of punk, it too recovers, metabolizes and reworks certain musical languages from the past. The putative fathers of dark can be traced back to the hard rock streaked with spectral landscapes of early Black Sabbath, courtesy of Tony Iommi and Ozzy Osbourne, to the shadowy, spacey psychedelia of "A Saucerful of Secrets" by Roger Waters' Pink Floyd, to the bleak, macabre progressive of Van Der Graaf Generator led by Peter Hammill, to the desperate sonic and lyrical malaise of Velvet Underground with Lou Reed and John Cale, to the gloomy litanies of the sepulchral Nico, and finally to the shadowy David Bowie of the so-called "Berlin trilogy". Musically we're dealing with dark, obsessive, gloomy sounds, while lyrically the focus is on funereal or otherwise oppressive, melancholy, sorrowful atmospheres: in a word, dark's stylistic signature is a romanticism that is minimal and shadowy, yet never lacking in emotional tension.

In the late 1970s, while bands like the Clash and the Jam restated, in both their lyrics and their attitudes, their social and political commitment, other bands and songwriters deliberately chose to turn completely inward, retreating into their own miniature worlds and giving voice to minimal lyrics and sounds, sometimes melancholic, sometimes desperate, but wholly steeped in a romanticism that pushed to the fore the suffering sensibility of modern man — no longer master of the world, but out of sync with himself and with others. The symbol of this outlook, and the progenitor-catalyst of all the traits of the dark "mood" we've outlined so far, is undoubtedly Ian Curtis, leader of the unforgettable Joy Division, who took his own life at just 23. The band's only two studio albums, "Unknown Pleasures" ('79) and "Closer" ('80), are, both musically and lyrically, a one-way journey into the abysses of incommunicability and inner solitude, a cold and senseless plunge into a kind of "cupio dissolvi". (…) Slow, evocative music alongside a fierce, raw existential torment would instead mark the artistic triumph of the so-called "dark trilogy" by Robert Smith and his Cure, who, after an intriguing debut blending pop and punk, "Three Imaginary Boys" ('79), plunged for three years into a searing darkness. The world had become a bleak, incomprehensible wasteland, where cold nature entangles itself with ever more stripped-bare feelings, and there is not only no way out — there never was one: that's "A Forest", a true masterpiece and the lead track of "Seventeen Seconds" ('80), the first album of the trilogy. Here, and on "Faith" ('81), the guitar twists into sharp, chillingly morbid riffs, the keyboards — rather than embroidering the foreground as in prog and glam — weave an underlying fabric of constant tension, the drumming is obsessively metronomic, and the bass turns from an essentially rhythmic instrument into melodic support of melancholic power, while the lyrics whisper and at times cry out the fearfully aware consciousness of an existence suspended in an absurd, meaningless world. All these traits are sublimated to the nth degree on the trilogy's final album, "Pornography" ('82), a true all-time dark masterpiece and a record able to express a sincere rock poetics, freed from the more or less slavish imitation of others' models.

Robert Smith's dark "sister" is Susan Dallion (better known as Siouxsie Sioux), the charismatic and magnetic leader of Siouxsie and the Banshees. The band, which would repeatedly count Robert Smith himself among its ranks on guitar and composition, moved through the English new wave along a coherent, clear-sighted path that led from a less immediate, more sophisticated punk to a brilliant psychedelia that never fell into cliché, all of it anchored by Siouxsie's powerful, dark voice, capable of plunging the listener into the deepest, darkest reaches of gothic sound: on that note, we should highlight the first five albums, "The Scream" ('78), "Join Hands" ('79), "Kaleidoscope" ('80), "Ju-Ju" ('81), an exemplary compendium of the Banshees' art, and "A Kiss in the Dreamhouse" ('82).

An initial deference to the instrumental and vocal textures of Siouxsie Sioux can be heard in the magical Cocteau Twins, the flagship band of so-called dream pop. Worth remembering are the albums "Garlands" ('82) and "Head Over Heels" ('83), and the delicate EPs "Lullabies" ('82), "Peppermint Pig" ('83) and "Sunburst and Snowblind" ('83), which also feature hushed but elaborate electronic orchestrations. Later on, Elizabeth Fraser's band would find a compositional originality of its own that took it away from gothic, and more broadly from new wave, but that would allow the singer's vocal potential to shine in just the right light. The dreamlike, spectral "Treasure" (1984) remains the absolute peak of this band and of this genre, as well as one of the most evocative records in the history of rock. Similar in approach are Dead Can Dance, an Australian band who nonetheless recorded for an English label: gothic, sepulchral atmospheres, a skillfully measured use of acoustic and electronic instrumentation, all alongside a delicate vocal style that at times rises to spine-chilling peaks courtesy of vocalist Lisa Gerrard — these are the hallmarks of their debut, the EP "The Garden of the Arcane Delights" ('83), of their first, self-titled album ('84), and of their second, "Spleen and Ideal" ('85), which, even in its title, perfectly blends dark instincts with a more markedly romantic-decadent sensibility. Starting with "The Serpent's Egg" (1988), the Australian band would introduce the first elements of an ethnic, ancestral sound that would go on to become their trademark. A wholly distinctive project is This Mortal Coil (a supergroup featuring, among others, members of Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance), an offshoot of 4AD — the very label home to the above-mentioned bands — responsible for an extremely delicate debut album, "It'll End in Tears" ('84), poised between experimentation and ethereal, melancholic gothic atmospheres.

Contemporary with Joy Division and the Cure are the early recordings of Bauhaus and Killing Joke, two other cornerstone bands in defining the gothic sound and beyond. Both add, to the glacially melodic instincts of the bands mentioned above, a fundamentally punk approach, a subtle taste for a certain intellectualized hard rock and for a certain guitar and electronic noise-making, alongside the unsettling voices of, respectively, Peter Murphy and Jaz Coleman.

Of Bauhaus (whose technical caliber and stylistic eclecticism led them to fuse all the splendid dark peculiarities of their sound into a single "unicum") we should remember the ominous 1979 single "Bela Lugosi's Dead" (with its clear nods to English gothic literature, bass and guitar tracing livid sonic paths) and the albums "In the Flat Field" from 1980 (striking for its devastating impact and sonic cohesion), "Mask" from 1981, and the melancholic "The Sky's Gone Out" ('82); and of Killing Joke, the first, seminal, self-titled album from 1980 (a trailblazer for a whole host of sounds to come, especially on the industrial side).

The blend of sounds — now dark, now noisy, now downright psychedelic — finds its fullest realization in the Public Image Ltd. project, the creature of Johnny Lydon (Rotten, back when he was frontman of the Sex Pistols). Against the, all things considered, more simplifying rock approach of the Pistols, P.I.L. set a sonic complexity born of a simultaneous, more self-aware assimilation and reworking of the punk message — which effectively makes them the ideal proof of the intrinsic bond that indissolubly ties, in a sort of Darwinian evolution, the sound and "mood" of punk to the more elaborate atmospheres of new wave. Essential to this band are its first three, extremely solid albums, with their obsessive, claustrophobic sound: "First Issue" ('78), "Metal Box – Second Edition" ('79) and "The Flowers Of Romance" ('81).

Lastly, we should mention Theatre of Hate, Sisters of Mercy, Cult and Mission, whose respective debut albums — "Westworld" ('82), "First And Last And Always" ('85), "Dreamtime" ('84) and "God's Own Medicine" ('86) — showcase a mature, compelling take on goth, though at times (especially with Cult and Mission) it tips into excessive epic grandeur, a kind of "rhetorical" overstatement of the dark sound. Sisters Of Mercy would also give the gothic movement one of its "anthems": "Temple Of Love", a track that, years on, still retains all of its gloomy allure.

The insights of the British dark-gothic movement would be picked up across the Atlantic by California's Christian Death, led by Rozz Williams (with the unforgettable "Only Theatre Of Pain" from 1982 and "Catastrophe Ballet" from 1984), as well as by sacred monsters of the industrial and hardcore scenes such as Nine Inch Nails, Ministry and Swans (the latter responsible for an album, "Children Of God", that can be considered the absolute masterpiece of American dark music).

In Italy, meanwhile, the darkest wave bands — at least in the early phase of their careers — were the Florentine acts Litfiba ("Desaparecido") and Diaframma ("Siberia"), just as in Spain there were Heroes del Silencio, a band from Zaragoza that achieved a degree of international fame with their "Senderos de Traicion".

The dark/gothic scene, after its golden decade in the '80s, may have dropped off the media's radar, but it never actually ended — quite the opposite: it has kept regenerating itself through new offshoots, from the neoclassical gothic of Black Tape For A Blue Girl and the Projekt stable (Attrition, Lycia, Unto Ashes) to the ethereal, medieval-tinged variants descended from Dead Can Dance (Aurora, Arcana, Love Is Colder Than Death), all the way to the new new(dark)wave of Interpol, Organ and I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness, down to the pitch-black rock abyss of Have A Nice Life and Soft Moon, and on to the dark evolutions of mysterious creatures like Sopor Aeternus and Zola Jesus, and captivating dark muses like Anna Von Hausswolff, Andrea Schroeder and Chelsea Wolfe.

(From "History of new wave" by Alino Stea and Claudio Fabretti)

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