Mopes no more

Wild Mood Swings lifts the band into even sunnier spheres than did the last studio disc, Wish, four years ago. This ought to revolt old-school fans even more than did the sweetness of "Friday I'm in Love" or the goofiness of "High," both of which were at least partly shaded by the sorrowful catch in Robert Smith's throat. Wild Mood Swings is a melodramatic title for an album that's free of the moroseness Smith's vocal cords seemed born express at least since he sobbed, "It doesn't matter if we all die" 14 years ago on Pornography (Elektra). On Mood Swings, the numbers that exude regret do so with an airiness entirely new to the Cure.

Over the years the Cure has played everything from jumpy new wave and Eastern-tinged exotica to achingly lovely pop and clamorous guitar-rock. But never have the toot of horns and the lilt of strings had such an impact on the overall mood of a Cure album. Which is interesting, because Disintegration-era keyboardist Roger O'Donnell has returned but has not brought back any of the synth heft of that album. (Also in the line-up is new drummer Jason Cooper, who joins bassist Simon Gallup and guitarist Perry Bamonte.)

Over the years, the very nature of Smith's tearful wail has made it difficult for the Cure to express much in the way of giddiness or whimsy. He's not exactly the clown prince of self-sustained misery (hello, Morrissey). Still, Smith can't possibly be as earnest as his warble has suggested. If he were, he would've moldered in some dank, shuttered bedroom long ago.

In a recent interview with MTV Brasil, he more than once distanced his real-life self from the songs on Mood Swings, describing them as being "not really me." One such number, "Want," he also described as "kind of like a sister song" to "Never Enough," from the Mixed Up disc. True, "Want" also arrives in a howl of guitar, plus it's about insatiable hunger. For drink, dreams, jokes, lust, lies, hate, love, pain, and a trip to the moon. But "Want" isn't anywhere near as furious or metallic as "Never Enough," a song that demonstrated just how comfortably the Cure could churn out a killer headbanger. The difference can be extended to all of Mood Swings, which is far more wistful and subdued than the Cure have ever been.

At the same time the disc is also more playful and sly. One number, "Club America," finds Smith doing a deep, cowboy swagger that renders him pretty much unrecognizable. He's the consummate asshole, well-versed in phoniness and schmooze. "I wanted to come across as something a bit more monstrous than I actually am," he told MTV Brasil. Well, it's a success, assuming he's not much of a monster. More proof of how adeptly Smith crawls into a persona for a song.

The strongest example of the Cure's foray into mirth comes in the form of the first single off Mood Swings, "The 13th." It's a bossa nova-toned cream puff of horns and giddiness in which Smith sings: "From time to time her eyes get wide/she's always got them stuck on me, I'm surprised/at how hot honey covered and hungry she looks/and I have to turn away to keep from bursting/yeah, I feel that good." And, yeah, for once he truly does seem to feel that good -- the inborn melancholy of his voice is lost in what sounds like delirious contentment.

Pair that with the kindred delirium of "Mint Car" and you've got to wonder if Smith has discovered some miraculous psychotropic drug. What else could cause him to bubble over with lines such as "The sun is up, I'm so happy I could scream/and there's nowhere else in the world that I'd rather be/than here with you, it's perfect, it's all I ever wanted"?

There's no mandate that says the Cure must give voice to nothing except romantic failures and farewells, to being loved too much or not enough. The world ought not to begrudge Robert Smith frivolity now and then. On the other hand, it's not too surprising that one of the stronger Mood Swings songs is "Jupiter Crash." In it a boy and a girl stand on a beach expecting an encounter of cosmic scale, only to drift apart in a tide of disappointment and loneliness. Is that all there is, they're left to wonder. Which is the way people might feel after hearing Mood Swings. That is, if they're expecting the immediate flash and beauty of another "Friday I'm in Love" or "Just Like Heaven."

Sometimes, though, happiness is enough. o

(The Cure make their American network TV debut on Saturday Night Live May 11. They will tour this summer.)