The Top

The Top is the fifth studio album by British band The Cure, released in 1984. The Top was the studio album to follow Pornography. After Pornography, Robert Smith found himself without his friend Simon Gallup, who departed the band due to a fight. Smith then took a radical shift in his music. Just months after the bleak Pornography, the band released the single "Let's Go to Bed" which just featured Smith, Lol Tolhurst and session drummer Steve Goulding. Following this was "The Walk", and then "The Love Cats". These three singles and their b-sides were compiled and became Japanese Whispers (1983). The Top is the first conventional studio album to follow this new side of The Cure. It marks a change from the upbeat synthpop of Japanese Whispers to a psychedelic, experimental sound. Due to the conflicts and band lineup troubles, Smith wrote almost all of the music himself, and played almost all the instruments (except the drums). As such, this is closer to a Robert Smith solo album than any other album in the band's history, seen as experimental and transitional.