#24: "Standing On A Beach: The Singles" by The Cure

#24—"Thank you, Robert Smith!"
"Disintegration is the
best album ever!"

Favorite Song: In Between Days
Notable Tracks: Boys Don't Cry, Let's Go To Bed, The Lovecats, Close To Me
Released: May 1986
Earned: Double-platinum in U.S.

This is an album given to me by my sister. I was late to the party as far as The Cure are concerned. My earliest memory of them involves strange videos played late after midnight on MTV, when they played about an hour or two of Goth music. I guess they thought Goths were like vampires and only awake in darkness. My first conscious memory of liking one of their songs was their hit "Hot, Hot, Hot!" from the great album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me.

I definitely remember the moment that I became a true blue, dark eyeliner, red lipstick fan of The Cure: the first time I heard (and saw—MTV was the venue for almost all new music in the eighties and early nineties) what remains, to this day, my favorite song, "Just LIke Heaven." And what I mean is that "Just Like Heaven" is my favorite song of all time by any band, ever, ever, ever.

And then came Wish in 1992, which if I had on vinyl instead of CD would be #1 on this little countdown. There are three CDs I cannot live without: Wish, The Sensual World by Kate Bush, and R.E.M.'s Automatic for the People. I also named The Cure as one of the five acts I've never seen play live that I wish I could. If you've never listened to Wish, it's one of the most brilliant albums I've ever heard.

So this album is basically my excuse to talk about how much I love The Cure. However, the songs I've mentioned above are all fantastic, especially my top pick, "In Between Days," which is playing on my turntable even as I type these words. It's got everything that makes The Cure great—a blend of acoustic and electric guitar, soaring synthesizers, crackling drums, and Robert Smith's marvelous tenor voice above it all. These songs capture the early brilliance of the band and was prophetic of the heights they would reach in their later albums.

Here's "In Between Days" from last summer's Lollapalooza festival in Chicago, which I could have gone to except that I couldn't get off work, didn't have the money, couldn't fly to Chicago, and didn't have a place to stay. Details, details...