Back by semi-popular demand: The Slicing Up Eyeballs readers poll, this time with a new twist. Whereas the first time around, we conducted a yearlong Best of the ’80s album survey, we’re going to dip our toes back into the polling waters by focusing on a single act: The Cure.
That’s right, with your help, we’re going to rank all 224 songs by Robert Smith and his various incarnations of The Cure. For those of you who’ve been around since the early days of this site, we took a very informal stab at this back in 2010, ranking 98 songs. This will be a far more complete, and scientific, vote.
VOTING: Below you’ll find a ballot listing 224 officially released songs written and recorded by The Cure. This list includes singles, B-sides, album tracks, EP cuts, songs from compilations, etc. — but it does not include live recordings, covers, remixes, alternate takes or demos, even if officially released. You’re welcome to vote for up to 25 of your favorite songs. (Certainly you can vote for fewer. If you’re all about “The Weedy Burton,” and nothing else matters, by all means, cast that lone vote.)
A few notes on all this:
- We’re pretty sure that this list of 224 songs is definitive, but there is a write-in option at the end of the poll in case we’ve missed anything. You can also email info@slicingupeyeballs.com if you’ve got any questions about song eligibility beyond the rules described above.
- While you can vote for up to 25 songs, they all will be weighed equally when the results are tallied. But if you’d like to share your ranked Top 25 (or fewer) lists with the rest of the Slicing Up Eyeballs readers, feel free to drop them in the comments below, and make your case for what you believe are The Cure’s best songs.
- Since someone’s going to ask, no, this doesn’t mean we won’t resume the Best of the ’80s Redux polls to determine the best songs of the decade. Those were much more difficult to run than the album polls, because participants could simply vote for any song they wanted vs. choosing from a list of titles in the album polls. This made for far less participation (people are more apt to vote when presented with a slate of things to choose from), and much, much more work on our end compiling results and making sure the songs people voted for were even from that year (you’d be surprised). We’re looking for a better solution. Suggestions are welcome in the comments below.
- Finally, special thanks to Craig at Chain of Flowers and Michele from the Out of This World: The Cure Italia group on Facebook for helping us compile/verify our list of original Cure songs.
DEADLINE: Voting ends 5 p.m. EST Friday, May 12, and results will be posted later in the month.
Sound good? Then vote away.
(If you have any difficulty using the webform below, go directly to Polldaddy to vote: poll.fm/5sk0k)
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- Watch: The Church’s Steve Kilbey covers The Cure classics ‘Pictures of You,’ ‘Love Song’
- Vintage Video: Watch 30 minutes of The Cure’s rehearsals for The Prayer Tour in 1989
- The Cure preparing ‘Greatest Hits,’ ‘Acoustic Hits’ vinyl picture discs for Record Store Day
- Lost wishes: 7 things The Cure’s Robert Smith promised to release this decade, but hasn’t
- The Cure’s Lol Tolhurst and Pearl Thompson reunite in the recording studio
Disintegratetion, mixed up my faves!
Plainsong is my #1, always and forever!
Yes to this.
Not my #1, but certainly a song I will be voting for!
What a fun poll. Twice as many Cure songs as there are Smiths songs. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it
This was fun. Do this with The Smiths, please!
This is to be expected, considering the Smiths were only active for five years. Love them both, though.
Why can’t I be you 12inch remix
Great list!
This was one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do.
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who thought this was the hardest decision
My favorite
Love The Cure!
The cure
You should do this for other bands too! This was fun!
Love The Cure!
I wanted to pick so many!
Difficult.
One of the best banbs and still relevant
One of their best song was their cover of Depeche Mode’s “World in My Eye.”
Yes!
This was fun!
Here are my choices for the best Cure songs – could have added lots more…
Love the Cure!
The Funeral Party. My favorite.
So difficult to only choose two of them!
I could have chosen more… ;-)
Hard to narrow down to only 25 songs
so difficult to choose
Only 25?! Hard!
The Cure are Gods
Fan of the Cure for over 25 years, these were some hard choices.
Way too many to choose just 25!
So many choices, had to really think on a couple of them.
So many great memories!
<3<3<3
Nice list
So hard to pick just 25
Too difficult. Regretting already.
Love the Cure. It’s hard to narrow down my favorites.
Not surprisingly, most of mine come from Kiss Me x 3
Same.
I love almost every song on the list.
My favorite Cure song has changed through time a lot. For the longest time it was A Strange Day, but it’s also been Cut, If Only Tonight We Could Sleep, Mint Car, The Same Deep Water As You, It’s Not You, Underneath The Stars… Right now, I think it is All I Want.
.
Different songs evoke different memories.
Loved doing this! Love THE CURE!
One of my all time fav bands ever!
Love The Cure just about every song is great.
Best band ever
Boy that was tough!
Good list! Hard to pick!
God bless the Cure!
“Kyoto Song” – forever and ever.
Oh yes, it’s amazing.
It was fun!!
I enjoyed that, it got me listening to some songs I’d forgotten
A Letter To Elise
Best. Song. Ever. ✌️
Thank You Jennifer! Also my all time favorite!!!
I basically love everything from 1979 through 1994.
I was lucky enough to be introduced to The Cure by their Standing On A Beach b-sides. 1985 was a great year, did a lot of walking on the tracks to high school to that album.
The Cure will always be a reflection of that moment in time.
I was lucky enough to be introduced to The Cure by their Standing On A Beach b-sides. 1985 was a great year, did a lot of walking on the tracks to high school to that album.
The Cure will always be a reflection of that moment in time.
Who can stop at 25
Done
❤️
PLAINSONG!!!!
Absolutely
Yes! Gorgeous!
Pornography and Japanese Dreams dominate my list
25 is not enough to choose by.
Really enjoyed their 3 hours concert in Oslo last year. Hadn’t seen them since 1986…
The Cure
It was difficult to pick only 25!
25 are never enough
Nice list, though it is missing “Ariel”, for one. :)
I was looking for Ariel too.
Wish I could vote for every song
Catch
This was HARD!!
Harold & Joe
This was tough, but I had fun. The Cure is my favorite band, thanks for running this poll. :)
There should be a create your dream set list
Sinking
Awesome song…Gives me chills
Six Different Ways needs more love. Sooo good.
All cats are grey.
I was about to scream about “Love Cats” until I found it under “The”. I had never known that was part of the title. =)
The caterpillar overall
Agree
Love this!
Hard to choose So many great songs!
Now I know what I’ll be listening to for the rest of the day…
Nice
❤️
I wish I could pick 100
Hard choices. .
Love this poll!!
untitled
Hard to select only 25!
i would have voted for every song if allowed :)
Cure rules!
Great idea for a list
Cool. A few in there I never heard of.
Anything from The Cure is awesome! :)
Of course the entire Pornography album is part of my choices haha
Probably the band I’ve listened to the most in my life!…
Why can’t I be me? Is missing (though it’s horrible and I’m sure no one has even noticed)
Love
So many great song, really hard to narrow it down to 25. Not many bands you can say that about.
Only 25?
I love that you’re doing this
25? That’s tough
The Best of The Best
This was painful but fun. Hard decisions had to be made. Thanks!
Just picked up both RSD greatest hits & greatest acoustic hits on wax brilliant picture discs, now if Robert Smith would finally re-release the rest of the remastered deluxe cds starting with Mixed Up…
!
Hard to decide for 25 I Love the Most of their Songs…
that’s wild how when I tried to be conservative about it so i could make it through the end, i hit 25 in the last few songs and didn’t end up having to go back up to go back through. just worked out perfect. that was tough though :-)
Teally hard to select only 2
Definitive version …
The best band in the world!
25 was hard to narrow down to. REALLY hard.
End by a wide margin
Thought it would be really tough doing this. I chose those which are really the closest to my heart and it was just about right.
This twilight garden <3
There’s always some left..
Love the cure!
It wasn’t easy to narrow it down to just 25, but I think eventually I managed not to leave out too many favourites.
Hard to pick, so many great songs.
Hard to choose. They are my whole life.
+1
All-Time Favorite Band! Love The Cure!
Was great to go back and listen to some of these songs! Hopefully, all periods of The Cure will be represented in the results. There are a lot of great songs from the first four albums that those who discovered the Cure later in their career might have missed! Whatever the results, it was a fun poll!
Lifelong Cure fan. This is so difficult. So many key songs listed that will always stick with me for sure, but I might have answered it differently next week.
Love love the Cure
You should do a DM next.
I need at least 20 more possibilities of choice. 25 is not enough. Thanx.
Never Enough!!
It’s hard to pick only two!
Good idea
That was fun , can’t wait for the next one
Awesome
The Cure songs provide the perfect metaphor for life!
Only 25… Very difficult… But Plainsong number 1
this was quite difficult!
To me, 2 Late is their best song. It’s everything Cure- happy, sad, wistful, beautiful- condensed into the most gorgeous little song ever.
So difficult with only 25 songs !
That was tough to decide!
Sooooooooo hard to narrow it down to 25!
My first cure song was “love cats” in the 80’s during college….every time I hear it it brings back happy memories!!
Untitled is my all time favorite.
Older the better for sure. Frankly Disentegration was their last great album. Beyond that only a song here or there.
Very hard to pick, although Disintegration is one of my most favorite albums. ♡
Felt like trolling with “New Day” – but I love New Day, had to include it!
Tough list to assemble. Tough to not just pick the entire Disintegration album as it is perfection. This was a lot of fun though. I went through the discography and made my selections quickly without overthinking things. Good thing we weren’t asked to rank them! Thanks for bring the site back, btw. It was always a favorite place to visit.
Charlotte Sometimes … vote over!
25 is not enough …
Top 25:
10:15 Sat Night
A Forest
A Strange Day
A Thousand Hours
Babble
Boys Don’t Cry
Burn
Close To Me
Cold
Fascination Street
Fight
From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
Inbetween Days
Just Like Heaven
Killing An Arab
Lovesong
More Than This
Never Enough
New Day
One Hundred Years
Push
The Exploding Boy
I would have to say there are too many underrated songs that most won’t know. I hope some of them get their props in the voting. The Cure has a gift of finding words that touch you at different points of your life and putting that feeling to words. I truly hope songs like that are on the list.
Again ” 25 is not enough “
ok. I have to print this and spend a little time thinking it over. But I know this…Burn and Fascination Street will be the first two. Fascination street was my introduction to the Cure — And I don’t know why, but Burn affected me…I can never turn them off, skip them and often start every mix playlist with one of those two songs. My vote is coming soon.
Distinegration is the best album ever recorded. I own all The Cure recordings, but I just cannot escape that album. To put on headphones, crank it up, and close your eyes is like floating in another world. <3 <3 <3
Tough to choose, so many good ones!
The Cure are the best band in history.
Plainsong, All Cats are Grey, Siamese Twins, A Forest, and Bloodflowers are my current top 5. So many to choose from.
I think we all agree From the edge of the deep green sea is the best one. It has everything you expect from a Cure song, angry-sad-fury-perfect lyric-great guitar solo…
The Cure are the best
:-)
Well that was horrible but went with my first thoughts and then changed 2 when I ran out of options. Exhausted and now need a lie down.
My favorites are “The same deep water as you”, “This twilight garden” and “Push”.
The best band ever ❤️
Caterpillar Girl forever has a place in my heart since I was just a little kid…. Just got Record Store Day´s limited release of the Cure´s Greatest Hits, 2 picture disc remastered by the man Smith himself…. and a lot of these songs are on it! check out my facebook post showing the record, https://www.facebook.com/colinburhart/posts/194785744371387
Hardest task of my life is to choose only 25!!!
Doh! I voted for “Cold” when I was thinking of “I’m Cold.”
Robert Smith is a brilliant song writer. The Cure are absolutely beautiful.
Too hard to choose only 25!!
Oh god this is impossible!
The Forest…Perfect Mix….sublime
Forever needs to be added, plus Eyemou, Why Can’t I Be Me …..
100 Seconds, Airlock
That was hard but, I sang each one quickly in my head was I read the title. That was fun!
World In My Eyes, Hello Goodbye
That was tough! I went through 25 like that! So many great songs to choose…They are Gods!!
Gracias The Cure
Gracias gracias gracias The Cure
So many options. My choices would change day by day back in the “Day”! Faith-Charlotte Sometimes-A Chain of Flowers-Play for Today-The Drowning Man-Same Deep Water as you-Jeez…so many greats. And yeah I had to choose Just Like Heaven. It’s just a perfectly melancholy pop track.
A vote for anything post-PORNOGRAPHY is wasted. Good, but wrong.
One the hardest things I have ever had to do!!! You may as well ask me to choose between my children!
Super hard…. needed at least 10 more spots…. so I will use this forum give a shout out to my honorable mentions that disn’t make my 25:
Baby Screams
Piggy in the Mirror
Birdmad Girl
Funeral Party
The Drowning Man
Charlotte Sometimes
The Upsyairs Room
Sinking
Holy Hour
Untitled
Here’s what made my cut:
The Cure 25
1. Plainsong
2. If Only Tonight We Could Sleep
3. Cold
4. Push
5. A Night Like This
6. Just One Kiss
7. The Exploding Boy
8. A Strange Day
9. This Twilight Garden
10. M
11. The Caterpillar
12. Play for Today
13. Three Imaginary Boys
14. Disintegration
15. Like Cockatoos
16. Other Voices
17. All Cats Are Grey
18. Love song
19. Just Like Heaven
20. Labyrinth
21. A Forest
22. Splintered in Her Head
23. Give Me It
24. Fire in Cairo
25. Fear of Ghosts
SUE rules! Depeche Mode next Matt…and let’s please open it up to 30 songs for their catalog.
Started skateboarding and listening to the Cure when I was age 15 back in 1985. Have loved them ever since.
Sooooo hard to just pick 25! This is why I love them so much! Such an amazing library of music and talent!
seventeen seconds, faith and pornography it’s all you need for true cure songs and none of your kiss me kiss me kiss me stuff
It use to be so easy I never even tried
The Last Day of Summer
Burn , fantastic track for the crow
There’s no Pirate Ships sadly
1. Just Like Heaven
2. Fascination Street
3. Plainsong
4. Splintered in Her Head
5. This Twilight Garden
6. Like Cockatoos
7. Halo
8. Pornography
9. A Forest
10. The Same Deep Water as You
11. A Few Hours After This
12. Apart
13. The Kiss
14. Harold and Joe
15. If Only Tonight We Could Sleep
16. Kyoto Song
17. The Exploding Boy
18. Faith
19. Disintegration
20. End
21. Catch
22. Pictures of You
23. 10:15 Saturday Night
24. Icing Sugar
25. Wailing Wall
I love seeing all of everyone’s picks….
I love this whole concept….
Impossible!!
Love!
It’s so hard to choose 25 out of, say, 125 that could be selected…
Oh, and thanks for this poll, lot of fun :)
“From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea” is soooooo good.
In best 25 it could be “It can never be the same” but miss…
Just reading down this list of songs reminded me of what a joke the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is… seriously, just put a list of Guns n Roses songs next to this list…. geez!
Not fair. I’m still at letter I and already reached 25.
Will be interesting to see what others love compared what are “traditional” faves that get more airplay…
Ah I love the cure forever! I hope the last tour won’t be the last time we see them play in Australia! “Charlotte Sometimes”, heard as a young teen, will forever have a special place in my heart ❤️
This is an impossible task..I was just warming up at 25…I can do a 75 song set list that would include 5 encores and that would be heaven
i actually found my ballot i sent to I Love Music (ilxor) when they ran this poll a few years back. i’m only going to modify 20 – 25. speaking of 80s band, i just finished Talking Heads over there and have also done New Order ect.
my all-time favorite band and it isn’t even close. saw them at the Hollywood Bowl last year and it reminded me of why they are my very favorite.
1 From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
2 Siamese Twins
3 Lullaby
4 A Forest
5 Just Like Heaven
6 Three Imaginary Boys
7 Close To Me
8 Lovesong
9 Faith
10 The Upstairs Room
11 How Beautiful You Are…
12 Open
13 10:15 Saturday Night
14 Let’s Go to Bed
15 A Man Inside My Mouth
16 Fire in Cairo
17 A Night Like This
18 Disintegration
19 Primary
20 The Figurehead
21 A Strange Day
22 Plainsong
23 Never Enough
24 If Only Tonight We Could Sleep (b/c of Ned Reddett recent review of the Kiss Me album)
25 Underneath the Stars (yes, i’m going there)
POLL Me Up Up Up Up Up Up Up Up – TALKING HEADS – ILM Artist Poll #82 – (The Results Thread):
https://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=105546
Ned Raggett, not sure how i messed that up
SO hard! My #1 favorite though is Like Cockatoos!
Hey Bee Ok…. I was at two of the three Hollywood Bowl last year Sunday and Tuesday…. both epic and almost completely different sets…. which night(s) did you go to???
They are my favorite band….
I think your list of 25 and mine have a lot in common…. love underneath the stars and as a Cure fan that goes back to the early 80’s…. in glad you “went there”…
i was at the Sunday show too. missed the first three songs but could hear them as we walked in. such a fun night and one i won’t ever forget.
Pictures of You…
I love almost everything untill 1989.
Cut (Away) and T7 from the Wish era.
AND I’M STILL WAITING for the remaster and hoping these are included.
Loves Cure!!!
Live this poll! Fun to go deeper with such a an iconic pillar of alternative music. Loved the Cure for a long time – hard to narrow down but here’s a few fav’s;
Charlotte Sometimes
All Cats Are Grey
From The Edge of the Deep Green Sea
Plainsong
Just One Kiss
Jumping Someone Else’s Train
100 Years
Lost
Disintegration
Just Like Heaven
A Forest
Cut
I like more than 25 songs
Since Boris Williams left the band, The Cure was never the same again.
Jason Cooper is mediocre at best.
From the edge of a deep green sea❗️ All time favorite ❗️
Feel like I’m betraying some of my favourite songs picking only 25!! But I’ve settled on:
39, A Chain of Flowers, A Few Hours After This, Boys Don’t Cry, Catch, Cut Here, Doing The Unstuck, Down Under, Fire in Cairo, Homesick, Lament, Let’s Go To Bed, Lullaby, Ocean, One More Time, Plainsong, Push, Six Different Ways, The Exploding Boy, The Funeral Party, The Last Day of Summer, There Is No If, This Twilight Garden, Underneath the Stars, Without You. :)
(Those 4:13 Dream B-sides so should have been on the album…)
This was so horribly difficult to pick just 25! I have loved this phenomenal band since 1985 when I was 14. Thus group has a song for every emotion, event, anything you can think of. This was the most difficult and time consuming task I have ever had to do (and I am nurse) LOL. I can’t wait to see the final results. ;-)
I vote for Charlotte Sometimes,Close to me,Disintegration. So hard..no vote also for other beautiful songs..Thanx Robert for all!!xo
Very difficult! I kept imagining doing this for The Smiths/Morrissey and that would be difficult as well because I love them the same and they both have a huge catalog of songs to listen through. Yes, I listened to hundreds of songs to make my list. I take this shit very seriously. Disinsgration has always been my favorite album. Love everything on it. So glad that we didn’t have to put these in order! I couldn’t have done it!
I can hardly wait to see the results!
This took an hour to complete. There are simply so many songs that have had an impact on me from their catalog. It’s like a sound track of memories, moments, and milestones.
There’s a lot I like, but so much to name! Still, can’t believe I saw them this past summer in Chicago.
I was on the old site. Glad you are back. Wish we could have picked a few more cure songs but great poll.
Just picked my top 25! This was so much fun, thank you
I could have done several Top 25 Cure lists, top pop songs, top quirky songs, top heavy songs…you get the picture. So I just picked the songs that were my favourites when I first heard them, and continue to resonate now.
1. Killing an Arab
2. I’m Cold
3. Splintered in her Head
4. All cats are grey
5. Faith
6. Other Voices
7. The Drowning Man
8. One Hundred Years
9. The Figurehead
10. Birdmad Girl
11. The Top
12. Kyoto Song
13. Sinking
14. The Kiss
15. Disintegration
16. From the edge of the deep green sea
17. To wish impossible things
18. Burn
19. The 13th
20. Jupiter Crash
21. Strange Attraction
22. Last Day of Summer
23. Never
24. Anniversary
25. Before Three
Seems like PLAINSONG is heading into pole position, but only right so!
I’m an old git, but I was surprised how many “later” ones I picked. I love Mint Car, Sleep When You’re Dead and Freakshow ;)
However, I have had my definitive Cure top three for a while now, although which one is at #2 changes position depending on my mood!
1. A Forest
=2. The Figurehead
=2. Disintegration
This was really difficult. The Cure is my favorite band and they have so many great songs.
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Untitled. So good…