The Cure's career has been too long and diverse to be well served by any one-disc compilation, no matter HOW thorough. Twenty-plus years of mega-awesomeness, encapsulated in one paltry disc? That just ain't happening. Their 1989 masterpiece Disintegration, or the two existing compilations, serve as a better introduction to the band than this - of course, the fans are going to have to buy this for "Cut Here" (which is admittedly not a bad song), which is a crass but all-too-common move nowadays...that's not even mentioning the fact that this CD mainly presents The Cure's barmy pop side, which no one really knows how to treat. Though "Lovesong," "A Forest," "Boys Don't Cry" and "Friday I'm in Love" are inevitable on any Cure compilation (and they all rule, by the way), many of the tracks I mentioned in my opening sentence are just as definitive and indispensable.

Pass this CD up and go for "Staring at the Sea" and "Galore" instead - those two singles compilations work much better at presenting a good profile of The Cure - and then move on to "Disintegration," "Wish" and "Faith" and be enthralled by the countless styles and huge amount of grooviness like countless Cure fans have been. I'd have MUCH rather seen them release a B-side collection than Greatest Hits - hey Robert, when are we going to see "The Big Hand" and "Burn" and countless others on one googily CD, huh?


Long, split review ahead   February 13, 2004
 28 out of 29 found this review helpful

Chances are, if you're on amazon.com looking at the Cure's Greatest Hits you're either:

a. Someone who's interested in getting into the Cure
or
b. A longtime Cure fan, seeing if the chosen songs are worthy.

As a result, this review will have two sides: "New to Cure" and "Cure veteran"

New to Cure:

Ok, here's the deal with the Cure:
1. The band has two sides. Light, poppy, and somewhat happy is one side. Dark, complex, and miserable is the other.
2. Every one of the Cure's albums falls into one of these two categories; there is no gray area.
3. The band's best work is really on their dark albums (i.e. Pornography, Faith, Disintegration), which primarily contain long, drawn-out, complex, beautiful, dark, depressing mood pieces.
4. However, long, complex mood pieces don't tend to make good radio singles, so this Greatest Hits collection is composed almost entirely of their lighter, poppier, happier songs.
5. If you're interested the Cure because you've heard songs like "Boys don't cry", "Close to me", "Just like heaven", "Love song", and "Friday, I'm in love", this collection is perfect for you. It's chock full of irresistibly catchy, poppy, and danceable tunes.
6. However, if you want to see the Cure at their absolute best, pick up the albums Disintegration, Pornography, and Faith. They take repeated listenings to really get into, but trust me, it's worth the effort.

Cure veteran:

If you're like most Cure veterans, you're probably all set to go off on a rant about how this collection basically only contains their poppy stuff and hardly has anything from their darker albums. Well, to that I say, what did you expect? This is a GREATEST HITS collection, not a "best of." We all know how great their dark, depressing stuff is, but the singles from those albums (excluding Disintegration) hardly made any impact on the British charts, let alone the American ones.

Even if you are a Cure veteran, I still say this is a wise buy. There's far too much filler on their happier albums, like Kiss me kiss me kiss me and The head on the door. This Greatest Hits collection, however, gives you a great overview of the best of their lighter side without any of the filler. But, if you have either Staring at the Sea or Galore, I'd recommend skipping this one over and saving your money for the box set. ; )


What's the point?!?   December 12, 2001
 22 out of 23 found this review helpful

The Cure have already put out one of the most celebrated best-of's of the rock era, "Staring At The Sea", covering all the singles from their 1979-1985 period (definitely the fans' favorite era). They followed it up a few years back with an admirable companion, "Galore", which picked up where the previous volume left off. Those two CD's give you every single the Cure released up through 1997. I would suggest picking those two up and leaving this one (which only scrapes together a few choice selections from those albums and throws in two new songs) in the dust. If "Greatest Hits" at least contained two of their biggest breakthrough hits from "Disintegration" ("Fascination Street" and "Pictures of You"), I could recommend it for an ultra-casual fan, but without those two songs it barely merits mention. It doesn't even contain anything from "Bloodflowers", their last stuido album, the only one not covered on "Staring At The Sea" or "Galore". The completist will want it for the two new songs (what a ripoff move by the band and the record company), but for the casual fan, get the previous two compilations and enjoy!


The Song Selection Is A Little Dubious...   January 18, 2002
 12 out of 15 found this review helpful

I always have to laugh when people get huffy at greatest hits collection because their favorite B-Side song which may have been arguably the band's greatest song ever didn't get in. Indeed singles are not the best that the band has to offer, but since the public buy these albums for the songs they hear on the radio, it's only inevitable. Sure if it was up to me a Cure greatest hits CD would be 50 percent Disintegration, 50 percent Bloodlowers with maybe One Hundred Years but life isn't a rose garden.

That been said, however, I'm a little dubious about what this CD claims are the greatest hits. Weren't 'Catch' and 'Hot Hot Hot' hits in the UK? 'The Caterpiller' sure was, peaking at #14. And I'm sure 'Fascination Street' and 'Pictures Of You' (latter still gets airplay on alternative stations) were bigger hits than 'Never Enough' and 'Wrong Number' put together. And no 'The 13th??' I'm sure sure about the rest of the world but I'm positive that was a hit in Australia. I'm a little baffled. And it would have been nice to include 'Killing An Arab' which altho wasn't a hit did earn notoriety for its subject matter and its always a plus to include the first ever single.

As for accusations about the song selection here as 'pure pop' i disagree. Sure 'Boys Don't Cry' and 'A Forest' may be the only 'goth' songs, but I still find 'Lullaby' and 'Close To Me' kind of creepy and 'In Between Days' and 'Just Like Heaven' altho not exactly gloomy, still witstfully melancholy and lyrically very sad. As for the new songs, 'Cut Here' sounds just like 'High' in my opinion which isn't too bad.

For Cure fans, yes have a whinge, for the casual listener who think you might like the Cure, go ahead and buy it.