The Cure - Standing on the Beach/Staring at the Sea

this comp was my first real introduction to the cure. it's really an awesome collection of songs.

I'll throw in a vote for Primary.

I'll vote for Killing An Arab, since it's the only Cure song I know.

It's hard to pick a favorite from just an excellent group of songs. I honestly can't decide between one of the first five or the last.

primary kills

"Play for Today" is my personal fave

Yep, Play For Today for the win!!!

silly to say, but in between wins by a country mile. myself, i'd be partial to 'fire in cairo' -- if it had been on the album

now, this is a massive poll

but, i could narrow it down to 'a forest', 'charlotte sometimes' and 'a night like this'

and then ultimately go with 'charlotte sometimes'. oddly enough, not an album track. but extremely moody and affecting

primary, but its hard with no option for plastic passion or M....

now i wonder if play for today was more right

hell, how do i still l u v the cure so

I'm voting for the Caterpillar, to make up for the lack of votes here. And because it's my favourite.

It was between "Jumping Someone Elses Train" and "A Forest" for me, so I voted "Jumping" and almost immediately regretted my vote.

voted for "Primary" because that the song that kind of stood out just a little more than all others on the compilation. "10:15 Saturday Night," "The Caterpillar" and "A Night Like This" were all right there as well.

This was the first Cure LP (cassette, actually) I ever bought, and it's still my favourite.)

I choose "Caterpillar" - which I also woulda voted for it in Nate's previous Cure poll. Unless I voted for "Killing An Arab" instead.

I'm torn between "Boys Don't Cry", "Jumping Someone Else's Train", "The Lovecats", "The Caterpillar", "In Between Days" and "Close To Me".

If "Grinding Halt" and "M" had been singles / on the album, they'd be in that list too.

"Let's Go To Bed". Rather easily when "Friday I'm In Love" or "Just Like Heaven" aren't options.

I'm with Geir!

I love that song.

This was the first Cure LP (cassette, actually) I ever bought

Me, too, although my sister bought it, not me. I associate this strongly with getting a walkman for the first time.

These four weren't on the cassette or the LP when it was originally released, though.

10:15 Saturday Night
Play for Today
Other Voices
A Night Like This

And the b-sides were!

B1 I'm Cold
B2 Another Journey By Train
B3 Descent
B4 Splintered In Her Head
B5 Mr Pink Eyes
B6 Happy The Man
B7 Throw Your Foot
B8 The Exploding Boy
B9 A Few Hours After This
B10 A Man Inside My Mouth
B11 Stop Dead
B12 New Day

13-year old me thought they were well weird.

This was one of the 1st couple of CDs I ever bought. I had a dubbed copy of it when I was 14, that probably was my introduction to the Cure, although I bought Boys Don't Cry on cassette around the same time. I'd probably go for Charlotte Sometimes.

The original vinyl didn't feature "A Night Like This" or "Other Voices," if memory serves.

Amazing collection. Hard to choose, but must go with "A Night Like This."

The cassette version with the b-sides was priceless.

"Staring at the Sea" was the VHS collection.

Which had great sound quality.

Amber and Alice love "A Forest", "Love Cats", "Inbetween Days" and "Close to me"

Me, I'll pick "Inbetween days" cause I always do.,

Yeah, the video collection was great. The songs were interspersed with home movie footage of them messing around in motorway service stations. Must've watched it about a thousand times.

That's not out on DVD is it? We literally watched that EVERY day when I was in college.

All together now:

Oom DO DO Oom DO DO
Doodoo do do Doodoo do do Doo Dooo do.

"Staring at the Sea" was the VHS collection.

Also the name of the CD edition. "Standing On The Beach" was the album version and, I believe, didn't contain non-singles such as "Other Voices" and "A Night Like This".

Agreed, great introductory comp. Loved it when I was a teenager.
I voted "Primary"; "Charlotte Sometimes" would probably be next.

Also my first introduction to the cure. Could this be the greatest compilation ever? I say yes, and my vote went to Charlotte Sometimes--the song evolves.

I can't separate my feelings for this collection without mentioning the B-sides on the cassette. About half don't do anything at all, but I appreciate them in context: in high school this is what pop music should have sounded like .

"Let's Go To Bed". Rather easily when "Friday I'm In Love" or "Just Like Heaven" aren't options.

'Friday I'm In Love' is one of the worst songs in the history of humanity.

No clear winner for me, but I went with "In Between Days", which is, aside from "Just Like Heaven" my favorite of their pop moments. Otherwise I would have gone with "A Forest" or "Close To Me" or maybe "Primary".

to Alfred: at my Atlanta-area high school, this is what pop music sounded like, for better or for worse (race matters etc.).

i totally forgot about the bsides...mr pink eye made us endlessly happy.

i had both video sets, and man i forgot about all the fun between videos. i lent them to a friends boyfriend about8 yrs ago...of course that dude never returned them.

Haha funny how many people went thru adolescence with this comp as a beacon. I dont know what makes it so great, maybe the sheer wtf-ness of switching from charlotte/hanging garden to LGTB/lovecats in an eyeblick.

you just summed it up nicely.

The only comp that had a similar impact on my adolescence – and employed a similar switch from darkness to light – was NO's Substance.

ha, OTM

Geir Hongro OTM (hahaha) about "Let's Go to Bed" -- that's an absolute gem of a song, and easily my second favorite on here... there's not a bad song on this, honestly.

I went with A Forest, though I'm partial to a lot of it, particularly "Killing An Arab." What's interesting for me is that when I moved forward from the compilation to buying the albums they were culled from, it often seemed they were composed of filler . . . plus the couple songs that had been collected on Staring at the Sea

Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me though it was released after SATS seemed particularly egregious in this regard, two LPs of mostly filler, "Why Can't I Be You?" "Just Like Heaven" plus boring odes of navelgazing misery like "The Snakepit" or whatever.

That The Cure had enough great songs to make Staring At The Sea at all is pretty impressive, but their legacy beyond that one record is pretty thin for me.

not OTM

so basically, you just dont like the cure much...

"icing sugar"?, "like cockatoos"?

not OTM

-- baaderonixx, Wednesday, March 5, 2008 5:33 PM (2 hours ago)

so basically, you just dont like the cure much...
-- bb, Wednesday, March 5, 2008 5:49 PM (2 hours ago

To convey a more balanced impression, I should have mentioned that I think Head on The Door is pretty great all the way through also, but beyond that, I'll stay with what I've said.

The idea that The Cure were a great singles band doesn't seem to me to be that outrageous . . . . I'm supposed to like Pornography all the way through?

To say I don't like them much discounts how much I do like--to take only the most apparent example--"A Forest." Shit, I even liked that "Trees" remix--and I always hate remixes.

And the b-sides were!

B1 I'm Cold
B2 Another Journey By Train
B3 Descent
B4 Splintered In Her Head
B5 Mr Pink Eyes
B6 Happy The Man
B7 Throw Your Foot
B8 The Exploding Boy
B9 A Few Hours After This
B10 A Man Inside My Mouth
B11 Stop Dead
B12 New Day

weren't these the b-sides to the "concert" cassette?

No.

the cure have the rare virtue of not only being a fantastic singles band, but also having 5 or 6 records that are fantastic all the way through.

Their first 8 albums are pretty fantastic all the way through, and Wish isn't too shabby either.

"Jumping Someone Elses Train"

x-post

I've always found it pretty hard to get all the way through <i>The Top</i>, but I'd otherwise agree with this sentiment.

The Top is their best album. It needs its own thread.

imo, Wish is secretly the 3rd or 4th best Cure album

Wish is alright but kinda contains the seeds of everything that would be wrong with the Cure from then on, IMO

Yeah - the b-sides only came on the cassette version and now, of course, all compiled in the "Join the Dots" box.

Very cool.

I thought "New Day" was about as super cool as it could get

I'm supposed to like Pornography all the way through?

oh man

The only Cure album I won't defend to ridiculous lengths is Wild Mood Swings.

i have always been so so baffled by love for The Top, which seems to have plenty of boosters on ILM despite being mostly a dreadful mess.

Pornography, on the other hand, deserves the praise it gets.

Oh man, this comp is so good. Was actually listening to it just the other day on a long drive to the Twin Cities. I voted for "A Forest."

Back in the day, I would have said 'A Forest' or 'Charlotte Sometimes' but the one I jones for the most from this comp is 'Play for Today'.

The only song on here I would never vote for as the best song on the album is "The Caterpillar".

Haha I'm tempted to vote for tha

... that one, but I think I'll just go for Charlotte Sometimes

Or maybe Other Voices, but it feels like cheating.

I'm pretty awed btw that they play that song on their current tour

I'd vote for "Caterpillar" but, you know, IBD!

I do have the cassette somewhere...

I had the VHS at one point, but I let a friend borrow it and never got it back. Curses!

(Oh well, I don't even have a VCR anymore)

What an album, my god.

A Forest for me. But it almost doesn't matter what wins, they're pretty much all perfect.

"Let's Go To Bed". Rather easily when "Friday I'm In Love" or "Just Like Heaven" aren't options.

'Friday I'm In Love' is one of the worst songs in the history of humanity.

OTM - well, slightly OTT, but FIIL is certainly the worst Cure single. Ugh.

and that was their last proper "hit"...

I'm supposed to like Pornography all the way through?

oh man

Are those deluxe reissues worth getting?

Sound-wise definitely. Bonus stuff-wise, probably not if you're asking this question.

Yeah it's the sound I was thinking about more than the bonus stuff.

"Friday I'm In Love" can't possibly be the worst Cure single ever when "Mint Car" and "Strange Attraction" are out there.

IMO the deluxe reissues are not really worth getting for the bonus tracks, apart from the Three Imaginary Boys one, and maybe the Seventeen Seconds. I think there were some plans to reissue the albums remastered without the bonus tracks - those may be worth buying, I don't think it's worth paying £18 for a remaster with a load of live/demo stuff that you're not going to listen to more than once.

IMO everything up through Pornography is worth getting for the bonus tracks; past that point it's really for completists (ie, ME) only.

Actually in terms of bonus discs, my fave by very far is 'The Top' one. I don't remember much of the Porn and Faith ones.

imo, Wish is secretly the 3rd or 4th best Cure album

This. My opinion hasn't changed since '92. But:

Wish The Top is alright but kinda contains the seeds of everything that would be wrong with the Cure from then on, IMO

wrong

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"Charlotte Sometimes" with an honorary mention to "Play For Today".

A Forest

That too.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Not a bad top five, even the lots of gray part.

This is nerdy but I'm going to program my CD player to play the poll results in ascending order, ending with "A Forest", and see how that works out. I love almost all of these songs.

Votes for every single song.

I think "A Night Like This" might have gathered a few more votes if not for the invention of the saxophone.

A Forest is my least favourite of all these. I think I've been scarred by sitting through 25 minute live versions.

Yeah I'm a bit puzzled by these results. Only one vote for "Night Like this"?; OTOH, it's nice to see how evenly spread the votes are.

"Night Like this"
one vote
saxophone

'a night like this' is beautiful and magnificent. even the sax sounds alright in it.

and 'other voices' is right there at the bottom too? i prefer it to 'primary' as far as the represented tracks from faith go.

Didn't most people have the cassette of this at the time? Which wouldn't have had the non single tracks like PfT, OV and ANLT on it. Anyway the B sides on the cassette version are better. 'A Few Hours After This' number 1 forever in an alternative universe.

I certainly did. I think I played the video more though.

The next video on tried to repeat the informal approach with bits of "video diary" between, but they made the mistake of making them too long, and, well, dull.

I didn't bother 'cos I already had all the singles (and had probably taped most of the videos off the telly!)

I had the cassette forever precisely because of the B-sides.

Yeah - same as 'Concert'

Is this the first album tracks poll where every song got a vote?!?

Everything got a vote on the Portishead S/T poll, didn't it?

still the best comp

or single disc best of, whatever

It covers the best era of the band, too. 1978-1986 > 1987-1993 > 1994-present.

pretty much.

I'm supposed to like Pornography all the way through?

oh man

One for the 'posts out-of-context' thread

Forty years old today. Still amazing.

I'll never understand why only the cassette had the awesome B-sides. This cassette was what made me finally fall in love with the Cure, and I remember rewinding to listen to the b sides over and over. For years you couldn't even listen to a lot of those songs. I think Join the Dots is the only way?

I rarely listen to them anymore but it's funny how much I care about them. Some of the opinions on this thread made me have to step away and do some mindful breathing.

Recently went on a quest for the perfect functional vintage Walkman and a good percentage of the reason why was to revisit the Standing On A Beach cassette, this is a great singles album but the cassette version is a truly multidimensional experience.

Probably (probably) my favourite Cure live experience was the encores for their first Reflections show in Sydney, which was a bit like listening to the cassette on shuffle, I am normally a bit resistant to fan service but it was just so unexpected and exciting:

World War, I'm Cold, Plastic Passion, Boy's Don't Cry, Killing Another, Jumping Someone Else's Train, Another Journey By Train, Descent, Splintered in Her Head, Charlotte Sometimes, The Hanging Garden, Let's Go to Bed, The Walk, Lovecats.

weren't these the b-sides to the "concert" cassette?

Ha! What a moron! Speaking of the b-side of the "concert" cassette, Is that the only place to find that version of "Forever"

It’s on Join the Dots, isn’t it?

No, but I think it’s on the deluxe edition of The Top

I have a playlist which duplicates the Curiosity live comp from the bonus tracks on the deluxe album editions

Yes. Great! The deluxe Top has it. I was confused by the 9 minute version on youtube. The black and white thumbnail and the font made me think that was it, but it didn't sound right. They're both from'84. The longer version falls off the rails a bit.

World War, I'm Cold, Plastic Passion, Boy's Don't Cry, Killing Another, Jumping Someone Else's Train, Another Journey By Train, Descent, Splintered in Her Head, Charlotte Sometimes, The Hanging Garden, Let's Go to Bed, The Walk, Lovecats.

So glad I went the second night when Bob had read ppl nitpicking on the internet and learnt The Weedy Burton to play too.

I'll never understand why only the cassette had the awesome B-sides. This cassette was what made me finally fall in love with the Cure, and I remember rewinding to listen to the b sides over and over.

Yes, at the time I listened to that cassette (incl. the b-sides) more than any proper Cure album.

Still on a quest to let the Cure finally "click" for me, if I could only find a copy of this on wax for not £60+ or whatever, this could be the thing that finally seals the deal

I have a nice memory of working my Saturday job at my Grandfather's garage in Paisley, then running around to John Menzies, before it shut, with my £20 pay and blowing half on the cassettes of Concert/Curiosity and Standing On The Beach.

Up until then, I'd only heard the BBC recording of Glastonbury '86 that a friend copied for me, and it was so great to have a huge chunk of singles, b-sides, and live songs to devour. To this day, my Cure appreciation is filtered through the live material on Curiosity and tracking down those early bootlegs.

XP - I don't know why some Cure records are so over-the-score expensive, and some aren't.

Concert itself for instance seems wildly overpriced, and yeah, SotB too.

If you're patient, you will eventually find one on Ebay for maybe £30+ in good condition.

but also dl it’s literally just a singles collection: you could pirate it in 3 seconds and then ask here for recs on what to buy next if it clicks based on what you like*

it’s not like the band are seeing any of your $113 for a forty-year-old compilation LP

*I have a suspicion you’d click easier with the second singles collection but probably are more likely to know and not care for those songs already so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

yeah i hear ya. sometimes, especially with music of the era, I find I connect more with a physical medium than a streaming one, you know?