The Cure - Plastic Passion (1982)

Another band from the late 70's that I loved, just like XTC, was The Cure. 'Killing An Arab' and '10:15 Saturday Night' were indie classics, and after hearing them I was hooked on this bright new band. Their debut album 'Three Imaginary Boys' was chock full of short, sharp pop-punk songs, and is still a favourite album of theirs after all this time, possibly because it's so different from the band that they became from their second effort onwards. Their songs became more polished, and another classic track, 'A Forest', heralded a change of style to a more lush, atmospheric sound, culminating in the 'Faith' album of 1981. Along the way they carried on releasing stand-alone singles, as was 'Killing An Arab', and I still have all of them on 7" vinyl. Even the singles that they released from their albums had exclusive b-sides, and so it's no surprise that 2004's 'Join The Dots' box set managed to fill four CDs with these b-sides and remixes. What it didn't do, however, was include the A-sides of the non-album singles, so I thought that I'd raid that box set and add some tracks from the 'Standing On A Beach' compilation to make a definitive collection of non-album songs from The Cure. When I'd finished I found that I had five 40 minute albums, so I feel another series coming on. This one, and the next as well, bring back memories of buying the singles and playing them over and over, as before the internet the only way to hear the songs was to play the records. Some of my favourites are on this album, with 'Jumping Someone Else's Train' and 'Charlotte Sometimes' bridging the pop-punk of the debut album and Robert Smith's more assured songwriting of 'Seventeen Seconds', and ultimately  'Faith'.

Track listing

01 Killing An Arab (single 1978)
02 Jumping Someone Else's Train (single 1979)
03 I'm Cold (b-side of 'Jumping Someone Else's Train')
04 Boys Don't Cry (single 1980)
05 Plastic Passion (b-side of 'Boys Don't Cry')
06 Pill Box Tales (b-side of 'Boys Don't Cry' 12")
07 Do The Hansa (b-side of 'Boys Don't Cry' 12")
08 Another Journey By Train (b-side of 'A Forest' 1980)
09 Descent (b-side of 'Primary' 1981)
10 Charlotte Sometimes (single 1981)
11 Splintered In Her Heart (b-side of 'Charlotte Sometimes')
12 Let's Go To Bed (single 1982)
13 Just One Kiss (b-side of 'Let's Go To Bed')