K SPECIAL - THE CURE
The Cure - Standing on a Beach - 45 Years - 1978-2023 (2023] (3 x CDs)
The Cure are an English rock band formed in 1978 in Crawley, West Sussex. Throughout numerous lineup changes since the band's formation, guitarist, lead vocalist, and songwriter Robert Smith has remained the only constant member, though bassist Simon Gallup has been present for all but about three years of the band's history. Their debut album, Three Imaginary Boys (1979), along with several early singles, placed the band at the forefront of the emerging post-punk and new wave movements that had sprung up in the United Kingdom.
Beginning with their second album, Seventeen Seconds (1980), the band adopted a new, increasingly dark and tormented style, which, together with Smith's stage look, had a strong influence on the emerging genre of gothic rock as well as the subculture that eventually formed around the genre.
After the release of the band's fourth album, Pornography (1982), Smith introduced a greater pop sensibility into the band's music, and they subsequently garnered worldwide mainstream success. Their singles compilation Standing on a Beach (1986) sold four million copies worldwide by 1989, and they reached their commercial peak with the albums Disintegration (1989) and Wish (1992). The Cure have released 13 studio albums, two EPs, and over 30 singles, and have sold over 30 million albums worldwide. Their most recent album, 4:13 Dream, was released in 2008. The Cure were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019.
There has never been a true CD representation of The Cure's best singles, B-sides and album tracks compiled in chronological order all in one place.
Based on the very positive response to the original compilation I decided to revisit it and expand it to a 3CD set. It now includes EVERY official Cure single release, plus a number of classic album tracks and a couple of B-sides, the songs which are most loved and true fan favourites, all in chronological order.
This new set now features ‘A Forest’ (Original 1980 7" Single Version) which is incredibly rare having never been officially released on CD. The versions we see on CD are either the full-length album version (which was the same version used on the 12" single), or the 'Shortened Edit' which is neither the album mix nor the single mix - it basically takes certain elements from both!
I definitely think this is an improvement on the original compilation and much more comprehensive and inclusive.
CD1: 21 Tracks - Time: 79:45
CD2: 19 Tracks - Time: 78:01
CD3: 18 Tracks - Time: 79:27
K
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Track lists
CD1
01 The Cure - Killing an Arab 2:23
02 The Cure - 10:15 Saturday Night 3:43
03 The Cure - Boys Don't Cry 2:42
04 The Cure - Jumping Someone Else's Train 2:59
05 The Cure - Grinding Halt 2:49
06 The Cure - Fire in Cairo 3:23
07 The Cure - A Forest (Original 1980 7" Single Version) 3:55
08 The Cure - Play for Today 3:40
09 The Cure - Secrets 3:20
10 The Cure - Primary 3:39
11 The Cure - Other Voices 4:23
12 The Cure - Charlotte Sometimes 4:13
13 The Cure - The Hanging Garden 4:34
14 The Cure - One Hundred Years 6:41
15 The Cure - The Figurehead 6:15
16 The Cure - Let's Go to Bed 3:34
17 The Cure - The Walk 3:31
18 The Cure - The Love Cats 3:40
19 The Cure - The Caterpillar 3:42
20 The Cure - In Between Days 2:58
21 The Cure - Close to Me (Original 1985 7" Single Remix) 3:41
CD2
01 The Cure - Push 4:31
02 The Cure - A Night Like This 4:16
03 The Cure - Why Can't I Be You? 3:14
04 The Cure - Catch 2:45
05 The Cure - Just Like Heaven (Bob Clearmountain Mix) 3:32
06 The Cure - How Beautiful You Are... 5:13
07 The Cure - Hot Hot Hot!!! (François Kevorkian and Ron St. Germain Mix) 3:35
08 The Cure - One More Time 4:31
09 The Cure - Lullaby (Single Mix) 4:10
10 The Cure - Fascination Street (Single Mix) 4:20
11 The Cure - Lovesong (Single Mix) 3:28
12 The Cure - Pictures of You (Single Mix) 4:48
13 The Cure - Closedown 4:18
14 The Cure - Never Enough (Single Mix) 4:28
15 The Cure - High (Single Mix) 3:35
16 The Cure - This Twilight Garden 4:44
17 The Cure - Friday I'm in Love (Single Mix) 3:35
18 The Cure - Halo 3:44
19 The Cure - A Letter to Elise (Album Version) 5:14
CD3
01 The Cure - From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea 7:45
02 The Cure - The 13th (Swing Radio Mix) 4:17
03 The Cure - Mint Car (Radio Mix) 3:29
04 The Cure - Strange Attraction (Adrian Sherwood Album Mix) 4:21
05 The Cure - Gone! (Radio Mix) 4:27
06 The Cure - Wrong Number (Single Mix) 6:01
07 The Cure - Out of This World (Album Version) 6:43
08 The Cure - Maybe Someday (Radio Edit) 3:59
09 The Cure - The Last Day of Summer 5:35
10 The Cure - Cut Here 4:10
11 The Cure - Just Say Yes 3:29
12 The Cure - The End of the World (Radio Edit) 3:43
13 The Cure - Taking Off 3:19
14 The Cure - alt.end 4:30
15 The Cure - The Only One (Mix 13) 3:57
16 The Cure - Freakshow (Mix 13) 2:28
17 The Cure - Sleep When I'm Dead (Mix 13) 3:51
18 The Cure - The Perfect Boy (Mix 13) 3:23
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K: Thank you very much for this excellent work on expanding and updating the Cure catalog. This is work that should actually be done by the record company! So double recognition and kudos! Best, TC
ReplyDeleteGreat compilation! But it's missing "Close To Me (Remix)" from Paul Oakenfold as a single release after "Never Enough".
ReplyDeleteI didn’t include this because the far superior original 1985 single release was already included, and I didn’t want to start repeating tracks with later remixes.
DeleteI also didn’t include "Boys Don't Cry" (New Voice – New Mix) from 1986, “The Blood” which was a Spain only single release, "A Forest" (Tree Mix) from 1990. I could go on…
There were also many promotional singles released, but I didn’t want to head down that path with countless ‘other’ singles and remixes.
K
Fair enough - it's a solid banging compilation. Just a shame there was no room for "Doing The Unstuck".... sob!
DeleteThe often absurd question put to the music enthusiast... 'who is best, who is your favorite?'
ReplyDeleteI came up with a response for this that works for me, in fun.
The 'Four Roberts', (prolific)... Robert Zimmerman, Robert Nesta Marley, Roberta Anderson and Robert Smith.
I was just in the process of doing something similar, so many thanks for this excellent work and your fantastic blog.
ReplyDeleteThe only track I would have added would have been Burn from The Crow OST as it is a live favourite.
Time for a 2024 update.......!