Disco de The Cure: “Greatest Hits”

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

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:

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. ; )

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 Greatest Hits is really pointless in the face of the perfectly perfect Staring At The Sea: The Singles 1979-1985 and it's companion Galore: The Singles 1986-1997. Get those two instead of this -- you get more Cure and less contractual filler.

...the fact all of the songs on this particular greatest hits album are remastered. Yes there have been several greatest hits albums before, but none sound like this. I have compared the CDs I have back to back with this one and as good as the originals (and other hit compilations) sound there is night and day difference. Even the album Galore is not as clean and crisp as this one, albeit just a small difference between the two. I know it sucks for those of you who already have the songs, but then again if you want the best of the best mastering you have to buy this CD.

For those of you who do not have a lot of Cure music this is the CD to get. You get (of course) all of the hits in what's currently the best reproduction possible. If you're a diehard fan and want some of those classics to stand out on your stereo you might want to go ahead and swallow that pride and get the CD. It's worth checking out.

This album is a great starter for the intro Cure fan. It is true that many of the Cure's greatest songs are missing from this album, especially those from disintegration, however, it can be also be argued that fans who don't already have both "Staring At the Sea" and "Galore are newcomers and would prefer something more comprehensive. I believe that is who "Greatest Hits" is marketed towards. I don't know what these reviewers who gave the album one and two stars were expecting.

In addition, a previous reviewer falsely stated that the "Acoustic Hits" version of this CD was packaged as a double album in the UK only. This is not true. This was a great move by the band in an effort to get those reviewers giving the album one and two stars to buy it. I purchased the album simply for the bonus acoustic disc which was available in the U.S. for a limited time. I am sure with a little effort, tose interested will be able to find the double disc version in their local used CD store or online for a pretty reasonable cost. Being a owner of this acoustic disc I can tell you it's definitely worth looking for.