Join the Dots: B-Sides and Rarities, 1978-2001

Join the Dots is a four-CD collection of B-sides and rarities that lives up to Cure leader Robert Smith’s wish: “I expected great B-sides from the artists I loved." A few early missteps notwithstanding, Smith gave collectors astounding value for their obsession. Tracks such as “Sugar Girl,” “This Twilight Garden” and “Halo” are as satisfying as their commonly known A-sides. Unlike many groups who have used their B-sides and bonus tracks to feed their unfocused, experimental and self-indulgent desires, the Cure painstakingly sculpted their outtakes with the same care and focus of the group’s official releases. Most remarkable are the covers of other people’s material. Whether it be David Bowie’s “Young Americans,” the Doors’ “Hello I Love You” or Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” (featured here in both the five-minute tribute album version and a previously unreleased three-minute radio version), the Cure stuck to their own musical values without sabotaging or surrendering the spirit of the originals, a nearly impossible feat. It’s an anthology that appropriately enough reports an alternate history for a group always looking to provide an alternative in the first place.