Faith

Faith is the third studio album and the first made after keyboardist Matthieu Hartley left, having disagreed with the band's direction. It reached number 14 in Britain and spent eight weeks on the chart. The band went back to Morgan Studios on 27 September 1980, but All Cats Are Grey and Primary, attempted in that session, did not make the album at that stage. Smith had hoped they would sound funereal and said they just sounded dull. Red Bus, Trident, The Roundhouse and Abbey Road were also tried, and much of the album was written in the studio.

All Cats Are Grey and The Drowning Man were inspired by Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast novels. It was the first Cure album to use a six-string bass. All Cats Are Grey has Smith on keyboards and piano with no guitar at all, and Lol Tolhurst has claimed a rare lyric credit for it. Primary, the only single, reached number 43 in Britain on its release on 27 March 1981, with both Gallup and Smith playing bass and no guitars or keyboards. The cover by Porl Thompson is a veiled picture of Bolton Priory in fog.

The instrumental Carnage Visors, first available only on the cassette, accompanied a short film by Ric Gallup, Simon Gallup's brother, that was shown instead of a support band on the 1981 Picture Tour. Critics were divided. Sounds' John Gill called it a stark departure and said it required a personal act of involvement, while NME's Ray Lowry dismissed it as just the modern face of Pink Floydism. AllMusic's Chris True later called it one of the most underrated and beautiful albums the Cure made. The Guardian ranked All Cats Are Grey eighth among the band's best songs in 2024, noting that Marc Almond once called it the perfect ecstasy record. A 2005 deluxe edition added Carnage Visors, demos, live tracks and Charlotte Sometimes.