The Cure
Peel Sessions
(Strange Fruit/Castle Communications 050)

This 4-track EP is probably the worst-packaged CD I allow myself to keep in my collection – it looks worse than those old Vienna Master Series classical CDs you used to see in the budget bins of Best Buy and Circuit City in the early 90s. I've seen bootlegs that look better, and in fact I'd probably replace this official release with a bootleg of the same material if I ever found one that had a cooler looking cover. But despite my aesthetic objection to it, I keep it around 'cause it's a great, classic Cure performance circa late '78. While the rest of the world was transfixed with "Grease" and Topps baseball cards (um, wait, maybe that was just me), The Cure were just starting to promulgate their spooky little pop songs.

Their Peel Session consists of their four "big hits" from the first album, "Killing an Arab," "10:15 Saturday Night," "Fire in Cairo," and "Boys Don't Cry." No frills, and not much more raw than the studio versions, but always worth a listen since they're just good songs. I'd probably be able to part with it if "Boys Don't Cry" weren't on here, 'cause I just love that song to pieces. Truly, I wish they'd reissue this so I could get rid of this ugly thing and replace it with a better looking version. Well, what do you expect, my dad left my mom for a 14-year-old bombshell when I was just 18, so surely you can see where this obsession with "this year's model" comes from!

Review by Crink Kodiak