Staring at the Sea: The Singles

The Cure | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Original Release Date: 1986
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Elektra
• ASIN: B000002H3O
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (83 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,166 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #16 in Music > Alternative Rock > Goth & Industrial > Goth
  • #21 in Music > Alternative Rock > New Wave & Post-Punk > Post-Punk
  • #29 in Music > Alternative Rock > Hardcore & Punk > General AAS

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you want this album, then buy the tape, June 10, 2000

By 

Eric Edelin (Baltimore, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Staring at the Sea: The Singles (Audio CD)

This album, and Galore, is the perfect Cure purchase to start your collection, or for the casual fan who doesn't want all of the albums. The cd contains four "bonus tracks," which are singles that were only released as promotion only or in certain countries, but the tape's side b has a whole collection of b-sides that are unavailable unless you own the corresponding singles (which are impossible to find now). Throw Your Foot, The Exploding Boy are infectious and giddy tunes, while Descent, Splintered In Her Head, Happy The Man, and New Day are sombre and melancholy. The tape is called Standing On A Beach and it still has the same old man from the cd cover.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sometimes I Dream, May 31, 2001

By 

Matthew Giuliano (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Staring at the Sea: The Singles (Audio CD)

"Staring at the Sea" is a collection of singles from the band's albums from "Three Imaginary Boys" (released in America as "Boys Don't Cry," with a few variations) in 1979 up through "Head on the Door" in 1985. This album provides a fine panorama of the Cure's progression from a power (punk) trio (Killing an Arab, Boys Don't Cry), through the heavily synthesized sounds of Faith (Other Voices), the gothic, drum machine of Pornography (The Hanging Garden), to the Cure's most complex (and commercially successful) arrangements in Head on the Door (Inbetween Days, Close to Me). New fans will instantly fall in love with Boys Don't Cry, Love Cats, Caterpillar, Inbetween Days and Close to Me. "Killing an Arab" was the band's first single, and despite its name, is merely an adaptation of Albert Camus' "The Stranger," not a reflection of any racial animosity. "Charlotte Sometimes" is a gem on this album. It was never released on a full-length album, yet it is a favorite of many Cure fans; the studio version is a bit sluggish, though, and fans will find that songs like "Let's Go to Bed," "The Walk," and "Charlotte" (though cleverly appealing as mid-80s antiquities) are literally transformed by the performances of these songs in the live CDs "Show" and "Paris." This compilation is outstanding, though. New fans are encouraged to check out "Galore," which is a collection of more recent singles that most people are more familiar with, but when you are ready to fall in love with the Cure, and you will, this album should immediately become part of your CD collection.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Cure: a singles band? Here's proof..., May 11, 2004

By 

Tim Brough "author and music buff" (Springfield, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Staring at the Sea: The Singles (Audio CD)

Thanks to the recent TV commercial for HP Digital cameras, I found myself really wanting to have some Cure in my life again and went looking for "Pictures Of You." Yes, at one time I had almost all the Cure CD's in my collection, but time and economics had weeded them away. "Staring At The Sea" offered me an opportunity to get a batch of other songs I remembered with fondness.

As dark and morose as The Cure's image had always been, their albums up to "The Head On The Door" frequently found them making dazzlingly brilliant singles. Hard to believe it, but Robert Smith was just as pop song smart as any New Romantic period hit maker, and in songs like "The Walk" or "Love Cats" he showed the kind of playfulness that many of his fans didn't always "get." Nonetheless, early efforts like "Killing An Arab" or "Hanging Garden" reinforced that dark depressive atmosphere that early Cure fans embraced so completely. Smith himself never had any problem with playing against preconceived notions of what a Cure song should be; I doubt a jazzy Robert ("Let's Go To Bed") was in any goth fan's must hear list.

I also found it ironic that the "Staring at the Sea" image of an old man was mirrored by the baby with the ice cream on "Galore." If you wanted to read more into it, you'd almost suspect Robert Smith was gently trying to remind listeners that he didn't mind playing to his more childlike nature when making music. While there has yet to be a comprehensive single disc collection of the Cure's best, a purchase of "Galore" and "Standing" will at least put all the singles at your fingertips.