Join The Dots: B-Sides and Rarities [Box set]

"The B Sides And Rarities" sums up exactly what is contained here, I'm puzzled why so many people are getting confused over this.

The B-Sides part explains itself, every B-Side which was an original song is present here and also a few B-Sides which were remixes of other songs.

The Rarities part is where people seem to be losing the plot. It's important to emphasise that this collection is by The Cure and nobody else, so that is the exact reason why you will not find any recordings made by Cure side-projects such as Cult Hero, The Glove or Fool's Dance, or projects/bands by other people featuring Robert Smith such as Junkie XL, The Banshees, Bowie or Bowie's cohorts Earl Slick and Reeves Gabrels.

The rarities present are Cure recordings that HAVE been available elsewhere before but not in any great quantities. So, you'll find the much heard about but rarely heard version of Lament given away free with Flexipop magazine, three version of Hello I Love You (two are from the rare Elektra record label compilation "Rubyait"), there's the only three Cure songs recorded specifically for films (as used on The Crow, The X Files and Judge Dredd movies) and there's various other remixes and songs, some of which have been available as legal downloads, some have been shall we just say available as "downloads"....

To me a rarity is a song that has been released but not widely available. Anything else is simply a song that has never been released ANYWHERE and that's where a great deal of people are getting confused with this box-set.

If you want music that has never EVER been available before then fear not, because from Spring 2004 The Cure are re-releasing their entire studio-album back catalogue and each will have a bonus disc of previously unreleased songs from the time period in which the album was made.

So chill out people and stop slagging off The Cure for not putting unreleased songs on this box-set, when it doesn't even say it contains any such thing !!!!

As for the songs that are present….

Well, the b-sides are amongst some of the finest music you’ll ever hear by and band on the planet, A-Side, B-Side or album track. They really are that good, even Robert Smith has commented recently that perhaps a few of the songs would have been better off on one of their albums in place of songs that actually did make the cut for the album. Naturally, as with all bands, the earlier stuff (and this set is in strict chronological order) goes from amusing naivety and then on into experimentalism. The middle of Disc 1 is predominantly electronic 1980s sounding, but that was primarily because the band was reduced to a two-piece at the time, the songwriting is still genius though. Towards the end of the disc the songs start getting really really good while still retaining very much a sound of their times. Basically, from Disc 2 onwards the quality of songwriting goes up several notches and songs such as A Chain Of Flowers, This Twilight Garden, The Big Hand, It Used To Be Me and Adonais are some of the finest songs you’ll ever hear, all the while bearing in mind they were just B-Sides.

The rest of the original B-Sides are all head and shoulders above album-track quality of many many other bands out there.

The remixes present are just what you’d expect from remixes of any bands songs. You either like a remix or you don’t, sometimes this depends on whether the mix sounds a lot like the original or nothing like it. I’ve never been such a fan of remixes, but a lot of people are so I guess it’s nice to see some of the bands remixes accounted for here (hey, they can’t be any worse than some of the rubbish on “Mixed Up” !!!).

The remainder of the material is the rarities and tracks from films. It doesn’t matter whether you think the Flexipop version of Lament is better than the original (or not) it’s just the fact that finally it’s been resurrected which counts !! Some people have been waiting over 20 years to hear this version again.

Hello I Love You is an entertainer in both of it’s versions (the 10 second version is actually just a reprise at the end of the Rubyait album, because that album is opened by the full length version of Hello…). The psychedelic version is just that and is a good reworking of the song, as is the normal version which is a bit of a sped up semi-rocker. Two versions of Purple Haze are present. The Virgin Radio version is simply fantastic and actually does add a bit to the original Hendrix version, by again being sped-up slightly (and also sounding a bit like the normal version of Hello…!!!). The other version of Purple Haze is just….terrible. Skip that track please ! Young Americans is again appalling….but nice to see it being released again (say’s through gritted teeth!).

There’s a few other rarities, but what I really want to mention is the three film songs. Burn is from The Crow and is easily in my top 5 Cure songs of all time. Pure genius, dark, heavy, thunderous drums. And our local dance music radio station used to play it at 7.30 every night in 1994 for some reason !!! More Than This from The X Files isn’t a Roxy Music cover version, contrary to popular bad reporting, it is in fact a decent enough electronic mood piece. Dredd Song (Judge Dredd, natch) is bursting with power and very orchestral sounding, with a nice message in the lyrics (nowt to do with Judge Dredd really…).

All in all, an amazing collection beating most bands regular output hands-down, and this is just The Cure’s leftovers!

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It's not all successful, no-one needs three versions of Hello, I Love You and one Purple Haze is more than enough, but the moments of breathtaking beauty outweigh the unnecessary dirges. Though past their peak by 1992 the b-sides to Wish give a tantalising glimpse at what should have been. Other highlights include The Crow-inspired Burn.

The packaging is luxurious, the sleeve notes illuminating, especially the inspiration for the title of classic b-side Harold and Joe, Bishop and Mangel respectively from Neighbours. Peculiarly some of the songs aren't where the sleeve says they are. Overall the 70 songs here are too much to digest in one listen but with a band as important as The Cure it's easy to forgive a little over indulgence.

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