surprise on The Cure is how loud and resonant the guitars are, with no neo-Eighties keyboards at all. The next big surprise is Smith's huge vocals -- he sounded wispy on the erratic Bloodflowers (2000), but he emotes live and direct here. People tend to associate Smith with adolescent gloom, but he's always sung smart adult love songs -- "The Lovecats," "Just Like Heaven" -- and he hits one of his all-time romantic peaks here, wailing the twisted devotion of "Before Three": "Whispering dreams, so fucked and high/It's hard to hold this night inside." It's the grooviest thing, it's a perfect dream.