Join the Dots (thing)

Join the Dots is a 4 CD set of songs by The Cure, with nearly 5 hours of b-sides, rare singles, unreleased tracks, and remixes. It was released in 2004 with an MSRP of $55 US.

My biggest nit with this collection has got to be the inclusion of songs like 10:15 Saturday Night and Just One Kiss, which were already easily available on other CDs. Anyone who is willing to drop $55 on a 4 CD set of Cure B-sides probably already owns most, if not all, of their widely released albums, meaning these tracks are pure filler. Quite a few of the tracks have been released on CD before, but often on a single that is hard to get ahold of (such as This Twilight Garden, which appeared in the 1992 single for High).

Tracks that I found notable which I had not heard previously included Ocean, To The Sky, and A Japanese Dream, all of which are very much in the traditional "I am Robert Smith and I am very very sad about something" style. Hey, either you like it or you don't.

There are also a couple of decent covers, including Depeche Mode's World in My Eyes and Bowie's Young Americans, while the Hendrix and The Doors covers are interesting in a "look at that two-headed chinchilla" sort of way. And while the 10 second remix of their cover of Hello, I Love You is amusing, in general the remixes either sounded just like the original tracks with some minor tweaks, or were noticeably inferior to the originals.

In summary: enough new (or rare) stuff for the completionists, but if you're not a freak for The Cure, there are better ways to spend your money, especially considering many of their earlier albums can now be purchased for $10 or less.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for, the ridiculously long track listing:

CD #1 - 1978-1987

1. 10:15 Saturday Night
2. Plastic Passion
3. Pillbox Tales
4. Do the Hansa
5. I'm Cold
6. Another Journey by Train
7. Descent
8. Splintered in Her Head
9. Lament (Flexipop Version)
10. Just One Kiss
11. The Dream
12. The Upstairs Room
13. Lament
14. Speak My Language
15. Mr Pink Eyes
16. Happy the Man
17. Throw Your Foot
18. New Day
19. The Exploding Boy
20. A Few Hours After This...
21. A Man Inside My Mouth
22. Stop Dead

CD #2 - 1987-1992

1. A Japanese Dream
2. Breathe
3. A Chain of Flowers
4. Snow in Summer
5. Sugar Girl
6. Icing Sugar (Weird Remix)
7. Hey You!!! (Kevorkian 12" Remix)
8. How Beautiful You Are (Clearmountain 7" Remix)
9. To the Sky
10. Babble
11. Out of Mind
12. 2 Late
13. Fear of Ghosts
14. Hello I Love You (Psychedelic Version)
15. Hello I Love You
16. Hello I Love You (10sec Version)
17. Harold and Joe
18. Just Like Heaven ('Chuck' Remix)

CD #3 - 1992-1996

1. This Twilight Garden
2. Play
3. Halo
4. Scared as You
5. The Big Hand
6. A Foolish Arrangement
7. Doing the Unstuck (Saunders 12" Remix)
8. Purple Haze (Virgin Radio Version)
9. Purple Haze
10. Burn
11. Young Americans
12. Dredd Song
13. It Used to Be Me
14. Ocean
15. Adonais

CD #4 - 1996-2001

1. Home
2. Waiting
3. A Pink Dream
4. This Is a Lie (Palmer Remix)
5. Wrong Number (Smith Remix)
6. More Than This
7. World in My Eyes
8. Possession
9. Out of This World (Oakenfold Remix)
10. Maybe Someday (Hedges Remix)
11. Coming Up
12. Signal to Noise (Acoustic Version)
13. Signal to Noise
14. Just Say Yes (Curve Remix)
15. A Forest (Plati/Slick Version)