Stopped Short Grinding Halt

The Cure : Grinding Halt

[Purchase]

On May 8, 1979 The Cure released Three Imaginary Boys, the band's debut album. Recorded at Morgan Studios, where The Who had recorded "Pinball Wizard", Yes HAD recorded Tales from Topographic Oceans and Rod Stewart had recorded Every Picture Tells a Story. The inexperienced trio allowed producer Chris Parry and engineer Mike Hedges to take control of the recording.

Robert Smith later told Spin's Adam Sweeting:

A lot of it was very superficial – I didn't even like it at the time. There were criticisms made that it was very lightweight, and I thought they were justified. Even when we'd made it, I wanted to do something that I thought had more substance to it.

Drummer Lol Tolhurst, who used a drum kit borroeed from the Jam's Rick Buckler, described the sessions in his book Cured: The Tale of Two Imaginary Boys:

It didn't take long for us to record the basic versions of the songs for Three Imaginary Boys. After all we had played and rehearsed them so many times before we went into the studio. With the exception of "So What" , we had all the lyrics worked out before we got to the studio. For that song Robert just had a sugar bag and read off the back of that, along with a sheet of lyrics I had given him. Very Dadaesque, I thought.

The band were left out of the mixing process, spending time at the back of the room drinking beer or visiting a nearby cafe at the studios where they'd see Gary Moore and Iron Maiden hanging out. 

Tolhurst again:

We tried to add our two cents worth to the sessions, especially Robert, who reasoned--not unreasonably-that Chris has signed us based on the demo we had made.We were ignored, as we were his new signing and he was running the show. He had just signed the Jam, who had some success, so his views prevailed.

The album may sound more spare and more post punk than the goth albums to come, but critics were impressed at the time.

Sounds' Dave McCullough praised it in a 5-star review: "The Cure are going somewhere different on each track, the ideas are startling and disarming". McCullough adding "Grinding Halt" is a "pop song that reminds you of the Isley Brothers or the Buzzcocks". Red Starr, writing in Smash Hits, described the album as a "brilliant, compelling debut". However, NME's Paul Morley didn't share the same point of view and wrote: "Most of the time, it's a voice catching its breath, a cautiously primitive riff guitar, toy drumming and a sprightly bass".