"Do You Want Head? Blow Your Mind with the Head Shop Album!" screams a commercial add in New York's Screw magazine in 1969. The band had garagy roots and evolved from Household Sponge to The Head Shop. Based in NYC, this psychedelic underground project had a unique sound, charcterized by soulful vocals, flying Hammond organ, fuzzy bass, distorted lead guitars, lots of percussive and weird rhythm instruments, plus several unexpected stereo experiments. A highlight for sure is their haunted interpretation of Bobby Hebb's 'Sunny'! Conceptional, but also musically there are some parallels to Joe Meek. Another major influence is The Beatles' experimental period, not just because of the cover version of 'Revolution.' Larry Coryell features as "wailing" guest musician on the track, 'I Feel Love Comin' On'…
After recording one of their darkest albums, 1984's The Top, the Cure regrouped and shuffled their lineup, which changed their musical direction rather radically. While the band always had a pop element in their sound and even recorded one of the lightest songs of the '80s, "The Lovecats," The Head on the Door is where they become a hitmaking machine. The shiny, sleek production and laser-sharp melodies of "Inbetween Days" and "Close to Me" helped them become modern rock radio staples and the inspired videos had them in heavy rotation on MTV. The rest of the record didn't suffer for hooks and inventive arrangements either, making even the gloomiest songs like "Screw" and "Kyoto Song" sound radio-ready, and the inventive arrangements…