Have we had this before? Am I going round and round now? I felt sure and must check my links but yes, I bought this from the bargain bins when it was released onto the jukeboxes of the world (ask your Granny!)

On this day in music history: April 30, 1984 - “The Top”, the fifth studio album by The Cure is released. Produced by David M. Allen, Chris Parry and Robert Smith, it is recorded at Genetic Studios, Garden Recording Studios, and Trident Studios in London from Late 1983 - Early 1984. After the surprise chart success of the singles “Let’s Go To Bed”, “The Walk” and “The Love Cats” in The Cure’s home country of Great Britain, Robert Smith decides to to move the band away from its dark and morose goth-rock sound, towards more accessible and pop oriented material, but still maintaining a quirky and experimental edge. At this point, the band consists mainly of Smith and keyboardist Laurence Tolhurst, with bassist Simon Gallup having quit prior to the sessions, and the other members having left prior to that time. “The Top” is virtually a solo album by Smith with him playing most of the instruments himself, augmented by Tolhurst who has switched from playing drums to keyboards, drummer Andy Anderson, saxophonist Porl Thompson (later switching to guitar) and bassist Phil Thornalley. It spins off the single “The Caterpillar” (#14 UK). It is remastered and reissued on CD in 2006 as a two CD Deluxe Edition. The first disc contains the original ten track album, with disc two featuring demos, rough mixes and live performances. Long out of print on vinyl, it is reissued in Europe for Record Store Day in 2012 as a limited edition gold vinyl pressing. It is reissued on vinyl in the US by Rhino Records in 2016. “The Top” peaks at number ten on the UK album chart and number one hundred eighty on the Billboard Top 200.

thanks to the most excellent Jeff Harris' blog 'Behind The Grooves