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Rating: JOIN THE DOTS: B-SIDES AND RARITIES 1978-2001
I don't know about the British pension system… Robert Smith has been married to the same woman for 30 years and has no children… who will change their denture water in a few decades? A costly entourage of attendants paid with the proceeds from an endless discography, inflated in recent years by remastered CDs enriched with unreleased tracks, demos, etc.
The 4 CD box set I am about to review is not just another compilation of singles (as are "Standing on the beach," "Galore," and "The greatest hits") but a real joy for the group's admirers and collectors: 70 mostly unreleased tracks that appeared as B-sides of singles, branded remixes, covers, and tracks written specifically for soundtracks. The title refers to the connect-the-dots puzzle that creates a defined image. Playful compilation: it's fun to listen to the tracks starting from 1978 up to 2001 and group together songs connected to their "parent" albums because almost always the unreleased ones use the same instrumentation or even recall the arrangement or compositional structure of the more famous songs.
There's something for everyone: the playful Cure of the early career, the dark ones of the trilogy, the romantic ones in the ballads, the sunny ones in the mid-'80s and early millennium, the eclectic ones of historical covers. The themes also revisit elements dear to Smith's poetry: descriptions of moods and hallucinatory visions (induced by drug abuse or dreams and nightmares), aspects of romantic relationships, death, self-criticism, and frustration in admitting one's limits or excesses. For space reasons, I mention points that best complete the discography of a band that started as a cult band and became a band for the masses perhaps due to the ability to range from darkness to light while maintaining an unmistakable style and emotionally engaging very different listeners. "I’m cold", distorted with rock guitars and deliberately doubled adolescent voice; "Splintered in her head" a claustrophobic nightmare of incessant percussion, whistles, echoes, very sinister effects on the vocals; "Mr. Pink Eyes" a crazy jazz piece from the Lovecats era; "The exploding boy" sunny and Spanish-influenced, which along with "A few hours after this" built on melodious pseudo-Chinese sounds and a whole sampled orchestra, are two gems from the "The head on the door" era; from the "Kiss me" period, there is a concentration of romantic tunes almost identical to those on the aforementioned CD, highlighting "Chain of Flowers" for its ethereal guitar and the wedding march of "Breathe" with a heart-wrenching crescendo of piano, keyboards, and sampled flutes.
"2 Late" which, despite its melancholic lyrics, has bursts of joy worthy of "In between days" and the dark and sensual "Fear of ghosts" where Smith almost whispers, doubling his voice on a circular, hypnotic melody, both unreleased from "Disintegration." In the '90s, the Cure played with covers: besides "Purplehaze" by Hendrix, there are "Hello I love you" by the Doors refreshed in their style; "Young Americans" by Bowie is graceful but doesn't convince me because it seems like a spoiled reggae attempt! "World in my eyes" by Depeche Mode is intelligently redone using synthesized rhythms, and many effects from contaminated keyboards and guitars.
From "Wish" emerge among others "The big hand" melancholic in describing the manipulation drugs have on human behaviors and an absolute masterpiece "This twilight garden". Relegated to a B-side, it's an excellent ballad and an intense declaration of love: the twilight of the garden is masterfully rendered by the keyboards creating a slow vortex, a strange carousel. The voice is dreamy, that of a man in love who, though uttering almost banal words, sounds sincere, tender, passionate.
From the "Wild mood swings" era, standout "Ocean" and "Adonais" (inspired by poets Shelley and Keats) for the clever use of real strings. The tracks written for soundtracks include "Dredd song" (from the film "Judge Dredd") epic and overfilled with string sections, "More than this" in a similar ambient style (from "X files") and the wonderful "Burn" (from "The Crow") complex and "virile": an excellent rhythm where the tremors and slashes of the guitar flutter along with the crow reproduced by those whistles also used for the closing of "If only tonight we could sleep".
A collection that indeed completes the long career of the group and allows many to take a dive back into the past, one of their most successful "Amarcord". Songs that are still current and enjoyable.
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