A Chronological List of Cure Lyrics You Can Name Your Band After

Borrowing lyrics for your band name is a delicate matter: you have to find a line (or word) that simultaneously speaks to the current environment, and proves you're a true fan, in case anyone calls you out.

Nightmare of You, seen posing here, chose the opening line from "Kyoto Song," the second cut on the Cure's 1985 LP The Head On the Door. They're not just letting you know they listen to this mysterious band the Cure (who've sold over thirty million albums), they're saying, "We've heard more than the singles, bro. We love this band. Fuckin' A."

"Kyoto Song" is one of many mid-'80s ethnocentric pastiches Robert Smith whipped off following tours of Japan with the Cure, Siouxsie & the Banshees and the Glove. Like the 1987 B-side "A Japanese Dream," "Kyoto Song" skirts racial condescension with its dinky keyboard lead, courtesy of the Yamaha DX7 Koto preset. Some of the the best Cure lyric band names date from this '83-'87 fame/drugs/glam era, but a lot of the music has dated terribly. It's only fitting these flakes would be mining said territory.

I realize most aspiring fashion victims don't have the time or depth to learn and love all fifty Cure records, so to make it easier, here's a list of band names you can cop from Robert Smith's lyrics:

Crying for Yesterday
Winter in Water Colours
Shades of Grey
The Eastern Hollows
F.I.R.E.I.N.C.A.I.R.O.
Swollen Lips
The Heat Disappears
Dress to Inflame
I Would Murder You if I Had the Alibi
Slaughterhouse Art
Midnight in the Subway
Berlin Black
Footsteps of My Shadow
Amongst the Statues
What the Morning Brings
Heartbeats in the Hallway
Drifting up the Stairs
Whispers in the Silence
The New Smile
Tell Me I'm Wrong
Talking All Night in a Room
I Wish I Was Yours
Pretending to Swim
Follow Your Eyes
The Girl Was Never There
Running Towards Nothing
The Empty Rooms
Trapped in the Light
You'll Fall in Love With Somebody Else Tonight
Remember the End
Standing Alone Underneath the Sky
The Picture Disappears
The Dream Had to End
A Measure of Life
Wait in Silence
Salvation Makes Me Stay
Dressed in White and Slowly Dreaming
Start to Blur
The More We Know the Less We Show
Another Perfect Lie
Innocent Forever
Blue Soft Rooms
Come Around at Christmas
Another Festive Compromise
Amongst the Stones
The Dark Deep Lakes
Two Pale Figures
Age and Sadness
The Funeral Party
Memories of Children's Dreams
Red Desperation
Into Your Blood
Your Body Falls
Across the Water
Sliding Downwards
The Memories Fade
Worlds That Never Were
The Bright Birds
The Violent Sound
The Fleeting Shapes
Beautiful and Brave
Everything Was True
Another Blind Game
The Mountain Never Moves
Through Closing Years
Perfect Moments Wait
If Only We Could Stay
The Sounds All Stay the Same
Scared Princess
It Doesn't Matter if We All Die
Ambition in the Back of a Black Car
Going Home Time
A Story on the Radio
Waiting for Saturday
Just Like the Old Days
Shadows and Deliverance
Under a Black Flag
Thrashing in the Water
Draped in Black
Static White Sound
Teeth of Madness
Jump Jump Dance and Sing
Catching Halos
The Shapes of Angels
Laughing Into the Fire
The First Colors
Sing Out Loud
Sleeping Less Every Night
The First Time in a Year
A Hundred Other Words
Chinese Art and American Girls
Despair of Time
The Sand and the Sea
Drowning Waves
A Sudden Hush Across the Water
The Sky and the Impossible Explode
Everything is Gone Forever
You Will Be Kissed Again
Monument to the Ruined Age
Eyes Like Ice
Ashes of the Fire
An Image of the Queen
In Books and Films and in Life and in Heaven
Somebody Died for This
The Taste of the Raging Sea
Turning Turning Blue
The Windows and the Floors
Fires Outside in the Sky
Laughing at the Christmas Lights
Remember from December
Dancing in Our Hands
A Minute After Ten
The Cagey Tigers
The Treacherous Things
Vanilla Smile
Two Drowned Fools
The Aftertaste of Anger
Spit it On the Wall
Where the Real Fun Is
Animal of God
Dead Electric Light
Howl and Hit Me Again
Sing Birds Sing Birds Sing
The Lemon Lies
Powder Pink and Sweet
Stiff as Toys
The Wind-Torn Trees
The Poison Birds
A Suck on a Gun
My Love Once More
This Solid Dance
The Dark Heat Throbs
Honey Dropping Dead Again
It's Got to Be Jazz
Nightmare of You
Death in the Pool
Trembling Man
I Turn on Fire
Every Voice Belongs to You
That American Voice Again
The Secret You
Witch Hunt for Another Girl
One More Treacherous Night
A Deathless Spell
Burning Eyes Like Stars
That Day in Paris
Two Souls as One
Thinner Than the Air
Understanding is a Dream
A Part of Shiny Wet
An Inch Away from Heaven
Empty as a Boy Can Be
Smash You Up and Screaming
Stories from Before