Contemporary In a contemporary review, Mark Coleman of
Rolling Stone praised the album for its developed sound saying "The Cure is trying to deepen and refine an existing sensibility rather than reach outward to expand it" and noted the whole band's greater contribution to the album, concluding "Kiss Me is a breakthrough all right. For the first time, the Cure’s music is relatively unfettered by pretension and indulgence, and the results are remarkable."
Chris Heath of
Q praised the album for its variety saying, "It covers so much ground that people used to music that carefully steers you on a clear path through sweeping gestures and bold statements -like, say,
U2-might find Kiss Me... a bit of a mess. They might even be right-but what a remarkable mess it is." Chris Willman of
Los Angeles Times observed, "For all its unevenness,
“Kiss Me” is a welcome step away from the existential gloom-monster image the Cure has cultivated. The band still sounds like
the Velvet Underground meeting
Emo Philips in a dimly lit
post-punk disco, but with an even wider variety of influences and instrumentation in the mix.", citing "
Why Can't I Be You?" and "
Just Like Heaven" as highlights, but was critical of the songs with longer running times,
Robert Christgau of
The Village Voice criticised the album for its repetitive song structures, but noted "Because Smith hasn't veered this far pop since he was a boy, most of the themes stick with you, and in a few cases--my pick is "
Just Like Heaven," which gets off to a relatively quick start--his romantic vagaries have universal potential."
Retrospective In a retrospective review,
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of
AllMusic wrote that the record was "more accessible and ambitious". He further opined that: "Even if
Kiss Me doesn't quite gel, its best moments... are remarkable and help make the album one of the group's very best." Barry Walsh of
Slant Magazine was mostly positive of the album, saying "with
Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, the Cure gives the listener the kind of roller-coaster rush that only great pop can provide." Douglas Wolk of
Blender praised its sound and noted the newfound success the band were embracing at the time, saying "they beefed up their production (orchestral synths! horns!) and made this double-album monument to teenage hormones, with just the right proportion of romance and revulsion" and concluding, "almost every song is a neatly arranged bouquet of roses or a bag of thorns." Ian Wade of
BBC described it as "One of only two listenable double albums in 1987 – the other being
Prince's seismic ''
Sign o' the Times'' – it cemented Robert Smith and chums' position", as well as calling it "A true delight." Ned Raggett also claimed "1987 really was a great year for double albums – just ask Prince. And
Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me is right up there." Raggett also noted Smith's lyricism as, "able to move beyond strict personal/autobiographical depictions or I/you interactions to consider something a little more complicated, perhaps a touch more 'real' if you like." Retrospectively,
Uproxx ranked the album the second best album by The Cure, while the
NME ranked it their fifth best album. Nitsuh Abebe of
Pitchfork called it the band's greatest and most definitive work, saying, "Every major mode of the Cure is here, and sounding better than ever, each one a realm of its own" and arguing that the album encompassed "the whole breadth of the Cure—and what seems like the whole head of Smith—in one glorious package".
Toronto Star also called it the band's "definitive statement", saying "It's also the toughest argument one can mount that there has never been a single 'Cure sound', but rather a steady, restless collage of – to borrow a later album title – "
wild mood swings" that all found their finest expressions here." ==Track listing==