Greatest Hits
AsGreatest Hits--and particularly the busking pavement jazz of  "Lovecats"--reminds us, the best Cure singles were very often tangential  exercises; they offered a goth-free playtime divergence from some of the  weightier studiousness of those early albums. Or, as smudged frontman Robert  Smith says of this 18-track collection, "Songs that are sung with a smile." This  wasn't always true--witness the refrigerated fogginess of the classic "A  Forest," theBlair Witch Projectof its day. What this compilation does  is focus attention on the Cure's perennial unpredictability--the breathless  claustrophobia of "Close to Me," the New Order-lite of "The Walk," the brass- section embellished thrust of "Why Can't I Be You." Oddly, chart-wise, the  Cure's lost weekend began immediately after "Friday I'm in Love," their most  ebullient melodic moment and the ultimate "clocking-off to kick those heels"  anthem. But at least the inclusion of two new songs, "Cut Here" and "Just Say  Yes" (with Saffron from Republica), indicate that the Cure remain a healthy,  ongoing concern.--Kevin Maidment