Goth Indie Music : Greatest Hits

Greatest Hits

£4.10

  1. Boys Don t Cry
  2. Forest
  3. Let s Go To Bed
  4. Lovecats
  5. Caterpillar
  6. In Between Days
  7. Close To Me
  8. Why Can t I Be You
  9. Just Like Heaven
  10. Lullaby
  11. Love Song
  12. Pictures Of You
  13. Never Enough
  14. High
  15. Friday I m In Love
  16. Mint Car
  17. Wrong Number
  18. Cut Here
  19. Just Say Yes

As Greatest Hits--and particularly the busking pavement jazz of Lovecats--reminds us, the best Cure singles were very often tangential exercises, halcyon playtime divergences offering a Goth-free contrast to some of the weightier studiousness of some of those early albums. Or, as smudged frontman Robert Smith says of this 18-track collection, Songs that are sung with a smile. This wasn t always true--witness the refrigerated fogginess of the classic A Forest, the Blair Witch Project of it s day. What this compilation does is focus attention on the Cure s perennial unpredictability--the nursery school bonkers-ness of The Caterpillar, the breathless claustrophobia of Close to Me, the New Order-lite of The Walk, the brass-section embellished thrust of Why Can t I Be You. Oddly, chart-wise, the Cure s Lost Weekend began immediately after Friday I m in Love, their most ebullient melodic moment and the ultimate clocking-off to kick-those-heels! anthem. But at least the inclusion of two new songs Cut Here and Just Say Yes (with Saffron from Republica) indicate that the Cure remain a healthy ongoing concern. --Kevin Maidment

Takes you back to another time - Music can take you back to a time and a place that you would otherwise forget. This is one of thise albums.

Greatest Hits - plain and simple - The Cure have always been one of these bands that I ve only ever half been aware of - I ve fully appreciated the impact they ve had on the music scene, but I ve never really known any of the songs as well as I should have. Which is why I bought this - their Greatest Hits. People that bleat on and complain about Greatest Hits being too predictable by certain artists miss the point - Best Of compilations are not for the die hard fans - if you re a die hard fan, you should already have all the albums. Best Of s are a great starting point for people just getting into an act. And this is exactly what this does. All the classics are here - Friday I m In Love, Boys Don t Cry, In Between Days....and that s exactly what people want. Everybody should have heard of The Cure - use this Greatest Hits as an excuse to finally buy one of their CD s and get to learn how great these tunes that have been played to you over and over again over the past 20 years really are. To everybody else - stop complaining about Greatest Hits compilations.

Give me the disease instead. - I cannot believe that they scooped together this many tunes to fill a CD by the whiney voiced big haired wet lipped shy thing. He sings all out of tune and flounces about like clothes without a person in them. Some of the tunes get in your head but its mostly inept teenage dirge with no substance. They are no Status Quo fo sho. Spend your money on something better like a Bartok syphony or Bong-ra or even Girls Aloud. Not this, this is not medicine, this is self inflicted whiney earache. I m not buying this album to keep him in oversized shirts, hairspray and mascara, no.

good pop songs - This is a good selection of pop songs...But those seeking what the cure are really all about should either by the albums or get join the dots (because some of those B-sides are amazing).The Cure were about long atmospheric pieces of music which conjure up images in your head and evoke moods without even hearing the lyrics. When the lyrics do come they are usually delivered in a despairing hopeless way, or wailed, by Robert Smith and his masterfully unique voice, in the world of Pop/Rock.Best songs suited for this are all the tracks on pornography , and charlotte sometimes, none of which included here. This is the lighter bouncier commercial side of the Cure. Songs you WILL have heard before but didn t know who it was. Except everyone knows Friday I m In Love - National Student Anthem.Staring at the Sea and Galore are better compilations, this skims over too many songs, but If you are going to get anything get disintegration. If you want pop hits, get Head on the door. And go from there

Great overview - I m not a Cure purist, I never really thought of myself as a real fan of the band. But this is a great collection of songs. Maybe not a fully representative one in terms of their overall goth agenda, but for those non-goths of us out there, it s just a great set of indie classics.For the casual listener (like me) there are a couple of tracks that detract from the overall quality. I don t really like Caterpillar , Lovecats was never their greatest song, and the cd tails off a little bit after Mint Car . But the bleak brilliance of Forest , the jangly guitars of In Between Days and the joyous build-up of melody in Close to Me represent real class, the like of which is just too rare these days. And who can forget Just Like Heaven which has become my firm favourite for the intro alone.The acoustic cd is not really worth much attention. I think I ve listened to it twice. There s no real variety or inventiveness evident on this - the tracks sound like exact replicas of the studio versions played on acoustic instruments, slightly less enthusiastically than they were the first time around.If you re a die hard Cure fan I m sure there s a whole lot more out there for you and this will probably just leave you wanting. For the rest of us, it s a great album.




Greatest Hits