Paris is a live album recorded by The Cure at Le Zénith de Paris, in October 1992 during their Wish tour, but released in October 1993. The band announced the album in July 1993.[8]
Paris was released at the same time as Show, which was recorded in the United States. The album features more cult classics like "The Figurehead" and "One Hundred Years" than Show, which is generally more single-friendly.
50% of the royalties earned by the album were given to the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement charities in support of their international relief work.
In mid-1996, Billboard reported that Paris had sold 95,000 copies in the United States by that point, much less than the 213,000 copies of Show sold there by the same point.[9] The magazine described the release of the album "within a few weeks" of Show as exemplifying the "unorthodox career path" that the band had taken.[9]
Reception
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic praised the album, observing "Show featured mostly hit singles; Paris features the songs that built their cult, including "Close to Me" and "Letter to Elise." Consequently, most fans will find this the more interesting of the two live albums, and, out of the two records, it is the more consistent and satisfying."[10]
Patrick Brennan of Hot Press was also positive on the song choices and felt it was "for die-hard Cure fans it's a gorgeous treat and for other acolytes of the lukewarm or lapsed variety it might well re-recruit them back into Bob Smith's sometimes wacky, ofttimes gloomy and always idiosyncratic world."[11]
Michele Kirsch of Vox praised the album's "top shelf sound engineers" and "good editing".[7] Rating the album eight out of ten, he noted "there's nothing here that doesn't work."[7]
