Paris (The Cure album)

Paris is a live album recorded by The Cure at Le Zénith de Paris, in October 1992 during their Wish tour, but released in October 1993. The band announced the album in July 1993.

Contents

• The cure at night paris
• Track listing
• Personnel
• Songs
• References

Paris was released at the same time as Show, which was recorded in the United States. The album features more cult classics like "The Figurehead" and "One Hundred Years" than Show, which is generally more single-friendly. A marked feature of the recordings is the ecstatic fervour with which the band are received by the Parisian audience; "Play for Today" is accompanied by the crowd singing along to the keyboard line. This period marked the high-water mark of the band's popularity – and this is notable from the reaction. Paris featured songs of the 80's, the darkest times of The Cure, the rendition of songs is very dark, almost apocalyptic in mood.

50% of the royalties earned by the album were given to the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement charities in support of their international relief work.

In mid-1996, Billboard reported that Paris had sold 95,000 copies in the United States by that point, much less than the 213,000 copies of Show sold there by the same point. The magazine described the release of the album "within a few weeks" of Show as exemplifying the "unorthodox career path" that the band had taken.

Michele Kirsch of Vox praised the album's "top shelf sound engineers" and "good editing." Rated the album eight out of ten, he noted "there's nothing here that doesn't work."