THE CURE - GREATEST HITS

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.

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