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Rating: The Cure is a cult band that has traversed nearly thirty years of contemporary rock history unscathed, led by singer-guitarist Robert Smith. They emerged in the late '70s and debuted in 1979 with the album "Three Imaginary Boys", a product of punk but with delicate and refined textures. Then came the "gothic" period ("dark" in Italy) of the next three albums, "Seventeen Seconds", "Faith", and "Pornography", leading to the pop phase that would take them to the top of the charts around the globe and leave an indelible mark on the sound of the '80s. "Join The Dots" is the other side of The Cure, an elegant box set of four CDs, housed in a cardboard case complete with a photo booklet, containing all the B-sides of the now-defunct 45s. We discover that the inspiration of the band has never waned, even when it came to filling a B-side: tracks like "I'm Cold", "Just One Kiss", "Breathe", "Babble", or "It Used To Be Me" have nothing to envy from the main titles of their respective singles.
The first CD is undoubtedly the most interesting, representing the most inspired and evocative phase of the band's life, ranging from 1979 to 1985. A good portion of the tracks had already appeared on the B-side of the cassette "Standing On A Beach - The Singles" (1986), which we can now listen to again in remastered form. We find the B-sides of the first, raw singles, yet no less charming, featuring the first historic bassist Michael Dempsey in the lineup. The arrival of bassist Simon Gallup coincides with the start of the "gothic" phase, peaking on this CD with the splendid "Splintered In Her Head". A lively and intelligent pop characterizes the remaining tracks after The Cure decides to abandon the "noir" atmospheres in favor of more open solutions to contaminations.
A step below is the second CD (1987-1990), although it still contains splendid songs. Particularly those from the "Disintegration" period, highlighting the extraordinary form of the musicians in 1989 ("Babble", "Out Of Mind", "Fear Of Ghosts"). The songs from the "Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me" period seem somewhat faded, possibly due to the overproduction of material in 1987 (a double LP and four singles), yet we find some excellent compositions like "Breathe", "Japanese Dream", and "Hey You-remix". An incredible version of "Hello I Love You" by The Doors closes the CD on a high note.
Decreasing quality in the third and fourth CDs (from 1992 to today), coinciding with the creative crisis of the band post "Wish" (1992), a crisis still unresolved. Not everything is to be discarded, mind you. The third CD features the splendid "Burn", from the soundtrack of "The Crow", and the very romantic "This Twilight Garden", "Play", "It Used To Be Me", and "Adonais". The tracklist of the fourth CD is negligible, where the group struggles to find a long-lost identity: Smith and his associates can no longer find inspiration neither in their past nor in present-day music.
The inner booklet is very colorful, full of beautiful photos both of the group and of the singles released from the early days to the present. The text is in English. The work is certainly recommended to the band's most die-hard fans, the only ones perhaps willing to shell out the forty euros necessary for the purchase, but if you loved The Cure and the '80s new wave, this box set should not be missing from your collection.
Tracklist disc 1
1.: 10:15 Saturday Night 2.: Plastic Passion 3.: Pillbox Tales 4.: Do The Hansa 5.: I'm Cold 6.: Another Journey By Train 7.: Descent 8.: Splintered In Her Head 9.: Lament (flexipop version) 10.: Just One Kiss 11.: Dream 12.: Upstairs Room 13.: Lament 14.: Speak My Language 15.: Mr Pink Eyes 16.: Happy The Man 17.: Throw Your Foot 18.: New Day 19.: Exploding Boy 20.: Few Hours After This 21.: Man Inside My Mouth 22.: Stop Dead
Tracklist disc 2
1.: Japanese Dream 2.: Breathe 3.: Chain Of Flowers 4.: Snow In Summer 5.: Sugar Girl 6.: Icing Sugar 7.: Hey You (12\" extended remix) 8.: How Beautiful You Are 9.: To The Sky 10.: Babble 11.: Out Of Mind 12.: 2 Late 13.: Fear Of Ghosts 14.: Hello I Love You (unreleased psychedelic mix) 15.: Hello I Love You 16.: Hello I Love You (slight return mix) 17.: Harold And Joe 18.: Just Like Heaven (dizzy mix)
Tracklist disc 3
1.: This Twilight Garden 2.: Play 3.: Halo 4.: Scared As You 5.: Big Hand 6.: Foolish Arrangement 7.: Doing The Unstuck (unreleased 12\" version) 8.: Purple Haze (Virgin radio version) 9.: Purple Haze 10.: Burn 11.: Young Americans 12.: Dredd Song 13.: It Used To Be Me 14.: Ocean 15.: Adonais
Tracklist disc 4
1.: Home 2.: Waiting 3.: Pink Dream 4.: This Is A Lie (ambient mix) 5.: Wrong Number (P2P remix) 6.: More Than This 7.: World In My Eyes 8.: Possession 9.: Out Of This World (Oakenfold remix) 10.: Maybe Someday (acoustic mix) 11.: Coming Up 12.: Signal To Noise (acoustic version) 13.: Signal To Noise 14.: Just Say Yes (Curve remix) 15.: Forest (Mark Plati mix) - Cure & Earl Slick
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