Is there a definitive CURE collection?
 

I'm not a big fan, but I like enough of there songs the consider getting a Cure - Greatest Hits. I see they have a "Greatest Hits" and a "Singles Collection". My problem is I don't recognize many of their song titles. There is one they are currently using in a commercial, which I thought was called Pictures of You, but I don't see that title on Amazon.com's listings.

Any help here would be appreciated.

Currently the best way to get a real career overview is to buy:

Staring At the Sea: The Singles - Which covers 1979 to 1986

Galore: The Singles - Covers from 1987 to 1998. It includes the song "Pictures of You."

Unfortunately, Staring At the Sea came out when CDs were first making an emergence and there are some tracks that are only available on the CD, and some that are only available on the cassette version, Standing On A Beach.

Since The Cure is a native UK band, that has had a big amount of success in the US, their catalog is something of a mess, and really needs to be consolidated.

Sorry to threadjack but I heard a version of 'lullaby' at the mall today that was essentially the same instrumentally, sped up slightly and with a few added bits that sounded pretty good. Can anyone guess who might have recorded that?

I think that's on "All Mixed Up"

Anyway, I would get "Staring at the Sea" and "Disintegration" if you wanted to cover most of the Cure's career. That's a great collection of early singles and their definitive later-period album. From there, I'd buy "Pornography" (their hardest-core goth album) and probably their first album, which is a post-punk classic. Then I would get the "Trilogy" dvd which is definitely worth the cash. ...in other words, this is one band where no "Greatest Hits" comp is going to cover all of the bases.

I'd get the first one if you just want most of the big radio hits.
 

<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6"><tr valign="top"> <td>1. Boys Don't Cry
2. A Forest
3. Let's Go To Bed
4. The Walk
5. The Lovecats
6. Inbetween Days
7. Close To Me
8. Why Can't I Be You?
9. Just Like Heaven
10. Lullaby
11. Lovesong
12. Never Enough
13. High
14. Friday I'm In Love
15. Mint Car
16. Wrong Number
17. Cut Here
18. Just Say Yes
Get the 2 disc version
to get a bonus CD
with unplugged versions
of all songs on Disc 1.</td> <td>http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0...1.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
</tr> </table><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6"><tr valign="top"> <td>1. Why Can't I Be You
2. Catch
3. Just Like Heaven
4. Hot Hot Hot!!!
5. Lullaby
6. Fascination Street
7. Lovesong
8. Pictures of You
9. Never Enough
10. Close to Me [Closet Remix]
11. High
12. Friday I'm in Love
13. Letter to Elise
14. 13th [Swing Radio Mix]
15. Mint Car [Radio Mix]
16. Strange Attraction [Album Mix]
17. Gone! [Radio Mix]
18. Wrong Number
</td> <td>http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0...1.LZZZZZZZ.jpg</tr> </table><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6"><tr valign="top"> <td>
1. Killing an Arab
2. 10:15 Saturday Night
3. Boys Don't Cry
4. Jumping Someone Else's Train
5. Forest
6. Play for Today
7. Primary
8. Other Voices
9. Charlotte Sometimes
10. Hanging Garden
11. Let's Go to Bed
12. Walk
13. Lovecats
14. Caterpillar
15. In Between Days
16. Close to Me
17. Night Like This</td> <td>http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0...1.LZZZZZZZ.jpg</tr> </table>

This isn't quite the right place to mention this, since this release is something only a huge fan would want, but I'll put it here anyway. This is taken from a Chain of Flowers, a Cure website:

"B-Sides Box Set - The Cure will be releasing a 4 cd box set entitled 'Join The Dots - The B-sides & Rarities Collection'. According to Polydor/Universal Paris, the release date has been pushed back to Jan. 2004. Update: Musictap now has it listed for Jan. 13th, 2004."

I'll definitely be getting that. If it's 4 CDs, it should have every one of their B-sides and a bunch of other stuff, too.

Back on topic, if you're looking for a collection of singles, you should either pick up the Greatest Hits CD, or both Staring at the Sea and Galore. You'ld probably be best off with the Greatest hits CD, though.

The B-sides set sounds interesting. I have the cassette of "Standing on a Beach", and it has a ton of b-sides (fittingly on side 2 of the tape). There are some good songs on there that I would like to have on CD.

The Cure is one band that has always had many exclusive songs and remixes buried on B-sides and CD singles.

Wow, that B-Sides set looks to be amazing. I wish Radiohead, and all bands with huge catalogs of B-Sides would do the same thing.

To clarify; this wasn't a Cure release. It was a band sampling Lullaby and adding a bit to it. Has anyone here heard anything like that before?

Oh this is so great, I can finally get a better version of some of my favorites. I have most of their rare stuff from Napster, recorded from my Standing and Live cassette, and some Cure bootleg sites. It will be nice to have some official B sides as some of my favorite songs are B sides and rarities, and I thought I was finished ripping my Cure CDs.

Don't dump them all out just yet.

In addition to this new box set, Robert has reported they will be remastering the catalog and adding bonus tracks. I think they are starting with Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Disintegration, Pornography and Bloodflowers.

I wonder if they will just add the tracks that were on cassette but never made it to CD, like World War and Hey You, or if they will dig stuff out of the vault.
I am still hoping they have a decent studio version of Always and/or Forever.

In a perfect world, they would contain both. But, as we know nothing is perfect in the world of The Cure.

Here's the site where got the information about the remasters, it seems they are more informative than the official site :lol:!http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homep...s/curenews.htm

I so confused. :(

That's because a greatest hits album from the Cure is like a greatest hits album from Pink Floyd...it doesn't really work. The Cure's albums are all meant to be heard as a piece, they fit together to create a whole. Taking most of their songs out of context of the album detracts from its strengths. They did produce some classic singles ("In Between Days" and "Just Like Heaven" spring to mind), but their best and most representative work ("Strange Day" off of Pornography or the title track off of Disintegration for example) were never released as singles. That's why you need to get the albums, not the comps to get a real taste for them.

Re: Is there a definitive CURE collection?
 

BTW, "Pictures of You" is currently running in an HP (not Amazon) TV commercial. You can watch/listen here: http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/hpads/you/

You can get Pictures of You on the UK release of the Greatest Hits. If you're a newby to the band then get Staring at the Sea and Galore. Then branch out and get everything you can get your hands on.

I've been listening to the Cure since 1982 and have an extensive collection of official releases, rarities and bootlegs. Once you start listening to their music, you'll want everything. I even have the Pink Pig collection. It's a complete catalog of the Cure's music recorded by fans of the band - full albums, b-sides and rarities on 14 discs.

The best thing is to find someone to make you a mix of all of their favorite Cure songs. It would be better than a greatest hits package.