Product Description

This compilation of singles represents the first eight years of the Cure's history, spanning 1978 through 1985. STARINGAT THE SEA is a necessary volume in any Cure fan's collection, its 17 absolute gems ranging from the dark, minimalist "Killing an Arab" to the almost symphonic "A Night Like This". The collection traces the Cure's evolution from post-punk trio through the early years of the band's reinvention as gloomy and mildly psychedelic romantics.
STARING includes the catchy "Boys Don't Cry" and "The Walk", the Cure's response to New Order's early attempts at electronic dance music. Also present here are the hauntingly beautiful "Charlotte Sometimes", not available on any other compact disc, and "The Lovecats", one of the Cure's more unique-and most commercially successful-singles. This excellent compilation effectively summarises the growth of one of new wave's most formidableforces. STARING AT THE SEA also serves as an ideal introduction to the Cure.

Track Listing

1. Killing An Arab
2. 10.15 Saturday Night
3. Boys Don't Cry
4. Jumping Someone Else's Train
5. Forest
6. Play For Today
7. Primary
8. Other Voices
9. Charlotte Sometimes
10. Hanging Garden
11. Let's Go To Bed
12. Walk
13. Love Cats
14. The caterpillar
15. In between days
16. Close to me
17. A night like this

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11473 in Music
• Released on: 1993-12-31
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import

Amazon.co.uk Review
Big and moody, Staring at the Sea compiles some hits and near-misses of these excavators of the dark soul. Beginning with their earliest hits--the sparse "Killing an Arab", the aptly tedious "10:15 Saturday Night" and the charming "Boys Don't Cry"--this collection stops before the comparative giddiness of Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. Musicians first, brooding art types second, The Cure's unique instrumentation doesn't get the credit it rightfully deserves. The thrashy, trash-can break in "Jumping Someone Else's Train", the sprightly synthesized recorder of "Close to Me" and the techno-pop disco lines in "Let's Go to Bed" and "The Walk" are downright brilliant in their effectiveness and simplicity. --Steve Gdula

Customer Reviews

A good introduction to The Cure....
Staring at the Sea - The Singles

I bought this album in 1986 on cassette, and still play it occasionally today. The cassette version had most of the CD's tracks on the A-side, while the B-side had a whole side of unavailable B-sides, which have been reissued on the 'Join The Dots' compilation. Still worth buying as in introduction to the early work of The Cure, and worth buying just for
standout tracks such as 10:15 Saturday Night, Boys Don't Cry, A Forest, Charlotte Sometimes, and The Lovecats.

A fantastic introduction to The Cure...
...but I do wonder why they insist on making a cd like this, with mostly singles from albums and then one or two non-album releases that you can't find anywhere else. This has some of my favourite ever songs on it, but if I were to buy this album, it would be for the two or so songs that I don't have - it's not really fair/value for money for long time fans.

Most played album In Antarctica
With the exception of 'the walk' which we skipped whenever we could, this was the album that kept the Captain and I awake while steering through Icebergs at night.
Killing an Arab is perfect if you forgive the title, 10.15 could be put on repeat play to clear the bridge, Boys Don't Cry has a melody hard to dislike, A Forest is menacingly brilliant and the closing trio of songs from the 'Head on the Door' album paint a rich and deep picture of the mind of the writers.
If you don't have a Cure album, you need this one plus thier last 'great' album 'Disintigration'.
Unless you are into bland pop - stick to the 70's and 80's Cure!

Darren Collis - Sea Shepherd Quatermaster