Pitchfork

Photo by Kyle Gustafson

This single out tomorrow isn't "The Only One" the Cure will be releasing ahead of their yet-untitled new album-- the iconic UK outfit has three more planned for the next three months-- but it sounds like, well, a pop single by the Cure, rather than the band's longer, mopier material. After a bright, melodic guitar line similar to the one from "Just Like Heaven", Robert Smith sings in that high, wounded voice about what you do to his heart, his lips, his skin, his bones: "It's the best, oh yeah." While there's not much distinctive about the lyrics, and the arrangement falls into a sturdy college-rock framework that the Cure themselves helped set, Smith's faltering yodel could only be his, thickened here with some generous echoes. Being with you is "a scream" and "so extreme," but it's also a "dream," a word Smith stretches out and raises to an unearthly pitch. "The Only One" won't make anyone forget the great Cure singles that came before it, but a listen to B-side "NY Trip"-- another love song, but with looser, jammier guitars and vaguer lyrics-- is a reminder that lightweight pop songs aren't necessarily as effortless as they sound.

[from "The Only One" single; due 05/13/08 on Geffen]