The Cure’s essential records span three albums before brand recognition set in

Evidence

The Cure become themselves in that moment –lasting three albums — after they have shed the petulant quirkiness of Three Imaginary Boys but before they have entered the comfort zone of branded recognisability. By then, Smith’s panto-persona –- lipstick smear, warm beer and Edward Lear — had become an archetype in the semiotic cemetery of the student disco, and the parameters of the Cure’s style were well-established — marked by what quickly became a regular oscillation between a post-Sgt. Pepper jollity and a slippers-comfortable despair. All of the drama of faltering self-discovery and existential experimentalism that makes the essential triptych of Seventeen Seconds, Faith and Pornography so compelling has gone. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1055

Categorization

• XREF: The claim that a group’s peak comes between anonymity and brand recognisability parallels the before/after structure Fisher uses throughout; could connect to analyses of other artists hitting a similar window.