Musicians first, brooding art types second, The Cure's unique instrumentation doesn't get the credit it rightfully deserves. The thrashy, trash-can break in "Jumping Someone Else's Train," the sprightly synthesized recorder of "Close to Me," and the techno-pop disco lines in "Let's Go to Bed" and "The Walk" are downright brilliant in their effectiveness and simplicity. A string of money shots if ever there was one. --Steve Gdula

But for the rest of us who actually appreciate melodies as long as they aren't too commercialized, STARING AT THE SEA is an amazingly good record, and probably the best single Cure album you can buy, especially if you haven't heard much from them before ("Friday I'm in Love," although it's good, doesn't really count).

This is absolutely not an album of light and mindless pop. Songs like "The Walk," "Let's Go to Bed," and even, god forbid, "The Love Cats" all utilize drum machines and synthesizers, but they still have that dark, introspective, wintry mood that marks them as distinctly Cure. And you can't call "Close to Me" a sellout, in fact I'm amazed it was a hit at all, with such a lo-fi production style and jazz instruments rather than guitars. "Boys Don't Cry," with its punky chords, is the most mainstream song on the compilation, but the lyrics are as mopey as anything Smith ever wrote. The only annoying silly pop tune on the CD is "The Caterpillar," but even that hardly sounds like typical top 40 material.

Everything else fits perfectly into Robert Smith's beautifully bleak landscape of romantic/Romantic yearning. Listen to classics like "A Forest" and "A Night Like This." You can just imagine the wide snowy expanses, the moonless nights and depressing city lights, people just looking for someone, anyone to share their pain. This music is as evocative and cinematic as any ever made.

It's the combination of oppressive darkness with memorable melodies and the very human voice of Robert Smith that makes the Cure stand out. They wrote better tunes than Joy Division and better lyrics than New Order, they were much more than merely a goth band, and they are more relevant than recent contenders like the Smashing Pumpkins, whose music is, ultimately, aimed only at teens. Yes, the Cure's lyrics are often naive fantasies, but somehow they are still incredibly powerful. If you put on your headphones, close your eyes, and just listen, after a while you'll start believing that the world around you is really as full of mystery, ecstasy, and tragedy as that of Robert Smith. Would it really be such a bad thing?

(Whatever you do, DO NOT get their recent career-spanning GREATEST HITS album. This CD, plus DISINTEGRATION and maybe WISH, will give you all the good stuff from there, and much more.)


Sometimes I Dream   May 31, 2001
 16 out of 16 found this review helpful

"Staring at the Sea" is a collection of singles from the band's albums from "Three Imaginary Boys" (released in America as "Boys Don't Cry," with a few variations) in 1979 up through "Head on the Door" in 1985. This album provides a fine panorama of the Cure's progression from a power (punk) trio (Killing an Arab, Boys Don't Cry), through the heavily synthesized sounds of Faith (Other Voices), the gothic, drum machine of Pornography (The Hanging Garden), to the Cure's most complex (and commercially successful) arrangements in Head on the Door (Inbetween Days, Close to Me). New fans will instantly fall in love with Boys Don't Cry, Love Cats, Caterpillar, Inbetween Days and Close to Me. "Killing an Arab" was the band's first single, and despite its name, is merely an adaptation of Albert Camus' "The Stranger," not a reflection of any racial animosity. "Charlotte Sometimes" is a gem on this album. It was never released on a full-length album, yet it is a favorite of many Cure fans; the studio version is a bit sluggish, though, and fans will find that songs like "Let's Go to Bed," "The Walk," and "Charlotte" (though cleverly appealing as mid-80s antiquities) are literally transformed by the performances of these songs in the live CDs "Show" and "Paris." This compilation is outstanding, though. New fans are encouraged to check out "Galore," which is a collection of more recent singles that most people are more familiar with, but when you are ready to fall in love with the Cure, and you will, this album should immediately become part of your CD collection.


If you want this album, then buy the tape   June 11, 2000
 13 out of 14 found this review helpful

This album, and Galore, is the perfect Cure purchase to start your collection, or for the casual fan who doesn't want all of the albums. The cd contains four "bonus tracks," which are singles that were only released as promotion only or in certain countries, but the tape's side b has a whole collection of b-sides that are unavailable unless you own the corresponding singles (which are impossible to find now). Throw Your Foot, The Exploding Boy are infectious and giddy tunes, while Descent, Splintered In Her Head, Happy The Man, and New Day are sombre and melancholy. The tape is called Standing On A Beach and it still has the same old man from the cd cover.


The Cure: a singles band? Here's proof...   May 11, 2004
 10 out of 10 found this review helpful

Thanks to the recent TV commercial for HP Digital cameras, I found myself really wanting to have some Cure in my life again and went looking for "Pictures Of You." Yes, at one time I had almost all the Cure CD's in my collection, but time and economics had weeded them away. "Staring At The Sea" offered me an opportunity to get a batch of other songs I remembered with fondness.

As dark and morose as The Cure's image had always been, their albums up to "The Head On The Door" frequently found them making dazzlingly brilliant singles. Hard to believe it, but Robert Smith was just as pop song smart as any New Romantic period hit maker, and in songs like "The Walk" or "Love Cats" he showed the kind of playfulness that many of his fans didn't always "get." Nonetheless, early efforts like "Killing An Arab" or "Hanging Garden" reinforced that dark depressive atmosphere that early Cure fans embraced so completely. Smith himself never had any problem with playing against preconceived notions of what a Cure song should be; I doubt a jazzy Robert ("Let's Go To Bed") was in any goth fan's must hear list.

I also found it ironic that the "Staring at the Sea" image of an old man was mirrored by the baby with the ice cream on "Galore." If you wanted to read more into it, you'd almost suspect Robert Smith was gently trying to remind listeners that he didn't mind playing to his more childlike nature when making music. While there has yet to be a comprehensive single disc collection of the Cure's best, a purchase of "Galore" and "Standing" will at least put all the singles at your fingertips.


An excellent compilation album.   November 2, 2004
 10 out of 12 found this review helpful

Pro: It culls all of The Cure's singles from their early period.
Con: If you want stuff like "Lovesong", "Just Like Heaven", and "Friday I'm In Love", it aint on here. That's all on "Galore", which picks up where this leaves off, chronologically.

Pro: Their early singles are excellent.
Con: But a lot of The Cure's best songs are non-singles. Buy this first. If you like it, buy all of the studio albums in which these songs come from.

So yes, this is an excellent compilation album. If you're new to the band, buy this and "Galore". It covers pretty much every single the band put out, even the ones that tanked.

"Staring at the Sea" is the better of the two, as their earlier singles are stronger overall (even though the band's most well known/successful singles came later in their career). From the Middle Eastern flavored punk of "Killing an Arab" to the shimmering, nocturnal pop of "A Night Like This", and everything in between.

And like a sandwich, there's some good stuff in between. The pure pop bliss of "Boys Don't Cry" and "Close To Me". The goth/new wave/pop masterpiece, "A Forest". The tribal gloom of "Other Voices". The tin pan alley, music hall romp of pop perfection that is "The Lovecats". The downbeat punk of "Play For Today" and "Primary". The minimalistic goth of "The Hanging Garden". The dated-but-still-fun synth pop of "Let's Go To Bed" and "The Walk". The jangly new-wave/punk mashup of "Jumping Someone Else's Train". And so forth..

With 17 songs, all of which range from 'good' to 'masterpiece', you can't really go wrong here. I would still recommend just buying all their studio albums, but this is a good place to start if you're not sure..

Best of the Best: A Forest, Primary, Charlotte Sometimes, The Lovecats, Jumping Someone Else's Train, Other Voices, Close To Me.