Wow! Another greatest hits album!

Wait a minute, didn't the Cure break up a couple of years ago? Well, your guess is as good as mine because, since the "last-hurrah" of Bloodflowers in 2000, Robert Smith and company are back again, this time with yet another greatest hits album and its token two new tracks. Greatest Hits attempts to consolidate The Cure's 25-year history into 16 tunes. Tracks span from requisite earlier cuts ("Boys Don't Cry," "A Forest") to the no-brainer inclusions ("Just Like Heaven," "Lovesong," "Friday I'm In Love), with some the likes of the frollicky, littler-known ("The Lovecats") and the later-era ("Mint Car") thrown in for good measure. This is all well and good and few will argue The Cure's place in music history, but the idea of another greatest hits album just boggles the mind. Anybody who likes The Cure undoubtedly owns these tunes already, and the band's best "greatest hits" work has to still go to the more inclusive Staring at the Sea and Galore. \nNow that said, there is some redemption. "Cut Here," one of the album's two new tracks, is pure Cure, and rivals any of the band's best work. Waves of electro-orchestration surround and submerse Smith's voice in an aura of love's loss; it's pure magic and infinitely hummable as the best melodies always are. But the real treat is the bonus acoustic disc included in the album's first pressings. It includes all 18 songs on the album proper played acoustically. Sure, the stripped down versions don't stray much from the originals, but these recordings, set down in August of this year, are infused with the same vibrancy and vitality that always has run through The Cure's work. The guitars and keyboards shimmer and Smith's bold, inimitable voice soars, strong as ever after all these years. Who knows whether The Cure still is or will ever be again, but its legacy will live on regardless.\nRating: 7