before they honed their patented blend of dark melodies and gothic textures, the cure made catchy, if angular, pop-punk. three imaginary boys, the band's 1979 debut album. maybe it was youthful exuberance or perhaps it was the fact that the band itself was not pulling all the strings, three imaginary boys is not only a very strong debut, but a near oddity (it's an admittedly "catchy" record) in the cure catalog. more poppy and representative of the times it was made that any other album during their long career, three imaginary boys is a semi-detached bit of late-'70s english pop-punk.