Wild Mood Swings is the tenth studio album by English rock band the Cure, released on 6 May 1996 by Fiction Records.

"[8] Wild Mood Swings was an album which saw various different changes towards the way the band approached recording their songs, such as the prominent use of computers and music software like Cubase, as well as live strings and brass instrumentation.

[15] Perry Bamonte replaced Porl Thompson as the group's secondary guitarist, leaving Roger O'Donnell, who returned after being absent in the band's previous album Wish, to fulfil keyboard parts.

"[10] The track "Club America", is inspired by a summer trip in 1994 that Smith had to New York in with Perry Bamonte, "I wanted to watch the football matches, the World Cup.

"[18]Meanwhile, Spin felt the song resembled English rock band Happy Mondays, due to it replicating their psychedelic sound[19] and NME compared it unfavourably to Tin Machine.

And, we haven’t….I mean we’re very conventional, we always use, like, drums, bass and guitars…but within that context, we…make the group do something slightly different.” Alongside many other changes to the band's working methods, they opted to use live brass instruments and string quartets in their songs.

The band chose Audrey Riley's string quartet for the album as Smith felt she was "very aware of recording for contemporary pop" and that he had difficulties with previous musicians.

Bassist Simon Gallup discussed the origin to the cover and motif in a contemporary interview, "Robert had this catalogue of toys from Germany.

A favourable review came from Trouser Press, which described the album as "a potent and sweeping dissertation on melancholy and tentative dreams denied," calling it "consistently compelling.

[43] When Simon Gallup was asked in a contemporary interview if he was looking forward to touring considering the album's mixed reception, he responded "Reviews really don't bother us.

"[44] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic noted the album's variety, commenting: "After the relatively straightforward pop of Wish, the Cure moved back toward stranger, edgier territory with Wild Mood Swings.... As the title suggests, there's a vast array of textures and emotions on Wild Mood Swings, from the woozy mariachi lounge horns of 'The 13th' to the perfect pop of 'Mint Car' and the monolithic dirge of 'Want.'"

He praised the album's variety saying that the band "explore some simpler territory, from contemplative acoustic numbers tinged with strings to swooning neo-psychedelia."

He concluded "but the variety of sounds and strength of performance offers enough surprises to make Wild Mood Swings more than just another Cure record.

"Starting with a swirling guitar riff and then building slowly in intensity as it goes, “Want” is another in a long line of powerhouse opening tracks on Cure albums."

"[46] Anthony DeCurtis of Rolling Stone praised the first two tracks on the album, saying "When he’s inspired, however, Smith can still make the journey along the tracks of his tears entirely compelling “Want,” which opens the album, renders emotional desolation in gripping terms, making the most of Smith’s ability to conjure a haunting atmosphere from a simple, endlessly repeated guitar figure.

", but felt that the album "recedes into generic Cure styles" and concluded "On Wild Mood Swings, Smith seems too trapped within his own obsessions to know when he’s merely expressed them and when he’s transformed them into art.

"[18] James Hannaham of Spin observed, "Smith and the Cure remain fixated on cheap thrills throughout Wild Mood Swings.

and felt, "Smith's three-note hooks never sounded less catchy, and the occasional arena-rock pretensions the band displays don't exactly hit home."

concluding, "Wild Mood Swings is the album you'd expect from the Cure if they'd suddenly become filthy rich, got drunk and high all the time, and had a midlife crisis.

"[19] Edna Gundersen of USA Today praised the album's sound, giving it three out of four stars, "a fun and deliberately trashy celebration of life's pleasures.

On Want, he expresses uncorked desire for "more fun, more pain, more flesh, more stars,'' and Mint Car finds him chirping happily about romance.