THE CURE レコード& CD

Review: Legendary emo indie outfit The Cure have played all over the world in their decorated careers but back in 1996 when they headed to Brazil, it was the first time they had been to the country since 1988. They were there for the 1996 edition of the Hollywood Rock Festival which they headlined in superb fashion and wowed their Latin American fans. Live Lullabies & Other Bedtime Stories is a special recording of that night that comes on nice yellow vinyl and features the likes of signature anthems like 'Boys Don't Cry,' 'Friday I'm In Love,' 'Just Like Heaven' and many more.

Review: A selection plucked from Robert Smith and co's 1984 Washington show, with a neat collection of tracks from what many would see as the band in their prime. The contrast between raw, speedy new wave anthems like 'Boy's Don't Cry' and '10:15 Saturday Night', the epic gothfest 'A Forest' and the cuter pop idiosycracities of 'The Caterpillar' show how quickly the Crawley gang evolved in their early days. Obviously, they had a long way to go after this, but many would say this is The Cure at their absolute finest.

Review: The Cure are one of those bands everyone should know, and do their best to try and see. With their roots in what was a nascent post punk sound, they quickly - like album two, quickly - turned to a darker, altogether weirder and artsier hybrid New Romantic sound before introducing clear pop sensibilities a little later. You can't help but feel they've carved out a completely unique place for themselves in the pantheons as a result. Of course, that's in retrospect and13 studio albums, 30 singles, and 30million unit sales later. But, as this collection of live recordings for broadcasting icon John Peel's BBC radio shows proves, even in their earliest incarnation there was something very different about Robert Smith and comrades. There's not a lot more that needs to be said, really. Perhaps aside from 'buy it'.

Review: Post-punk pioneers and drivers of the earthy gothic scene, The Cure is one of the UK's most seminal bands. They have a wealth of ever-green and classic hits which have a bittersweet sense of uplifting melancholy to them and never do they sound better than when live. Between the years of 1979 and 1981 they played no fewer than nine times for the BBC and this is a collection of some of the best of it. There are several highlights from various albums during that time and this marks the first vinyl release for some of these versions after various bootlegged CDs in the past.

Review: 30th Anniversary Edition of the Cure's best-selling, Grammy-nominated album 'WISH.' This deluxe 45 track edition - compiled by Robert Smith - features 24 previously unreleased tracks & 4 new to CD tracks across three discs. And that's not to mention their four tracks that appeared exclusively on the mail-order cassette 'Lost Wishes', released in 1993, which have never appeared on CD or digitally, the previously unreleased song 'A Wendy Band', a previously unheard mix of the epic fan favourite 'From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea', five rare 12" mixes, and an unheard live version of 'End' from Paris Bercy in October 1992.

Review: Given The Cure's particularly brittle sound in their early years, it's an added joy to hear it compressed with a tape-borne level of saturation for this excellent collection of three radio broadcasts. Disc one is given over to a recording from Philipshalle, Dusseldorf in 1981, capturing the band during their seminal run of early, gothic new wave. Disc two comes a few years later at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, and you can already hear the evolution of the band while still very much ensconced in their funereal splendour and jangling guitar sound. For a greater leap still, head to disc three and the recording from Praca Da Apoteose, Rio De Janeiro in 1996, which was right around the time they released Wild Mood Swings, and marvel at the evolution of one of the finest bands of the era.