An old winter favorite

I'm listening to an old WINTER favorite today.
"FAITH," the 1981 third album by THE CURE, has accompanied me through many bleak, cold, grey days of winter.
I cherished my cassette of it in college -- when I was a California boy in the alien, wind chill-swept land of Iowa. Even the cover looked like the winter days I was experiencing for the first time!
Often viewed as The Cure's mopey peak, "Faith" doesn't always get the type of accolades lavished upon the follow-up album, "Pornography." That's one of the reasons I like "Faith," I guess. It has an underdog status, but there's more to the album than initially meets the ear.
Nitsuh Abebe on the Pitchfork website summed up the album well:
"This album winds its way from ultra-sophisticated pop thrills ('Primary') to synth mope ('All Cats are Grey') to fierce snarls ('Doubt') to snakey exoticism ('Other Voices'), all without ever changing its raw, minimalist instrumental setup or really seeming to shift course at all."
Raw... minimalist... and seemingly perfect for a grey winter's day. That's "Faith."