|
|
news 'zine e-zine contact links home
The Cure - Greatest Hits
I don’t think that anyone, no matter what you may think of their album output, could deny that over the years The Cure have been one of the greatest singles bands ever. Which is why a greatest hits album is bound to be something pretty damn good, because they’ve had some really great hits. And they are all here, the brilliant and very 80’s A Forest, the sing-along pop genius of The Lovecats, the breezy pop of Inbetween Days and Close To Me, the anthemic Just Like Heaven (the Dinosaur Jr version is better though, don’t listen to anyone who says otherwise), the spooky Lullaby, the touching Love Song, the feel good of Friday I’m In Love, to name but a few of the nineteen tracks here. It’s quite an impressive track listing it has to be said. But as great as all of these songs are by themselves this is a compilation and it shows, it doesn’t quite fit together as an album in itself, the huge leap in their sound between 1979 and 1980 is the best example of this, it’s almost like two different bands, only Smith’s vocals remaining consistent. As such it might not be an album you sit down and listen to all the way through, more of a case of pick and choose whichever songs you want to hear at the time. The bonus disc is a selection of The Cure’s hits played acoustic, and isn’t very special really. They just sound like skeletal and slightly inferior versions of the songs that you already have on the other CD anyway. Though some songs (Lovecats, Inbetween Days, Just Like Heaven) do sound very good performed this way and it’s quite entertaining to hear Robert Smith giggle and say; “We got no one who can play the trumpet here” before impersonating said instrument himself at the end of a rather crap version of Close To Me. It’s an album that’s worth picking up, but you’re probably better off getting the rest of The Cure’s back catalogue eventually.
8 out of 10