Poll — April 24, 2017 at 7:53 am

Slicing Up Eyeballs’ Best of The Cure: Vote for your favorite songs by Robert Smith & Co.

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.

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)

 


 

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235 Comments

  1. Mandy clements

    Disintegratetion, mixed up my faves!

  2. Amber Snead

    Plainsong is my #1, always and forever!

  3. Brad Hertzner

    What a fun poll. Twice as many Cure songs as there are Smiths songs. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it

  4. Why can’t I be you 12inch remix

  5. Great list!

  6. This was one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do.

  7. Tim Simpson

    Love The Cure!

  8. The cure

  9. John Kearns

    You should do this for other bands too! This was fun!

  10. Jessica Merino

    Love The Cure!

  11. I wanted to pick so many!

  12. dave Curry

    Difficult.

  13. One of the best banbs and still relevant

  14. One of their best song was their cover of Depeche Mode’s “World in My Eye.”

  15. This was fun!

  16. Debbie Burgess

    Here are my choices for the best Cure songs – could have added lots more…

  17. Love the Cure!

  18. The Funeral Party. My favorite.

  19. Suzanne McDaniel

    So difficult to only choose two of them!

  20. I could have chosen more… ;-)

  21. Hard to narrow down to only 25 songs

  22. so difficult to choose

  23. Only 25?! Hard!

  24. The Cure are Gods

  25. Fan of the Cure for over 25 years, these were some hard choices.

  26. Michael Kendall

    Way too many to choose just 25!

  27. So many choices, had to really think on a couple of them.

  28. So many great memories!

  29. Nikki Siko

    <3<3<3

  30. Nice list

  31. So hard to pick just 25

  32. Raul Boris Briceno

    Too difficult. Regretting already.

  33. Love the Cure. It’s hard to narrow down my favorites.

  34. Not surprisingly, most of mine come from Kiss Me x 3

  35. I love almost every song on the list.

  36. 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.

  37. David Alchujian

    .

  38. Different songs evoke different memories.

  39. Rafael Gomez

    Loved doing this! Love THE CURE!

  40. Pattie Buechel

    One of my all time fav bands ever!

  41. Maggie Argott

    Love The Cure just about every song is great.

  42. Best band ever

  43. Jerry Burch

    Boy that was tough!

  44. Hillary Anne Clark

    Good list! Hard to pick!

  45. Aron Pickering

    God bless the Cure!

  46. Tatyana Yezhova

    “Kyoto Song” – forever and ever.

  47. Carlos Astros

    It was fun!!

  48. Kathryn Nolan

    I enjoyed that, it got me listening to some songs I’d forgotten

  49. A Letter To Elise
    Best. Song. Ever. ✌️

  50. Carolyn Esposito

    I basically love everything from 1979 through 1994.

  51. Jerry Castelli

    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.

  52. Jerry Castelli

    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.

  53. Eric runions

    Who can stop at 25

  54. Karen Pumphrey

    Done

  55. ❤️

  56. Shirley Sparling

    PLAINSONG!!!!

  57. Pornography and Japanese Dreams dominate my list

  58. David Gibson

    25 is not enough to choose by.

  59. Heidi H Holtestaul

    Really enjoyed their 3 hours concert in Oslo last year. Hadn’t seen them since 1986…

  60. It was difficult to pick only 25!

  61. Marcelo Araujo

    25 are never enough

  62. Oscar Milde

    Nice list, though it is missing “Ariel”, for one. :)

  63. Jennifer Detisch

    Wish I could vote for every song

  64. Catch

  65. This was HARD!!

  66. Harold & Joe

  67. This was tough, but I had fun. The Cure is my favorite band, thanks for running this poll. :)

  68. There should be a create your dream set list

  69. Gary wills

    Sinking

  70. Six Different Ways needs more love. Sooo good.

  71. Robert Powell

    All cats are grey.

  72. Paula O'Keefe

    I was about to scream about “Love Cats” until I found it under “The”. I had never known that was part of the title. =)

  73. Amanda Blair

    The caterpillar overall

  74. Love this!

  75. Karen McElroy

    Hard to choose So many great songs!

  76. Now I know what I’ll be listening to for the rest of the day…

  77. Nice

  78. ❤️

  79. I wish I could pick 100

  80. Robert Powell

    Hard choices. .

  81. Love this poll!!

  82. untitled

  83. Hard to select only 25!

  84. Belinda Baycroft

    i would have voted for every song if allowed :)

  85. Cure rules!

  86. James walsh

    Great idea for a list

  87. Sarah Cardenas

    Cool. A few in there I never heard of.

  88. Nikki Watson

    Anything from The Cure is awesome! :)

  89. Of course the entire Pornography album is part of my choices haha

  90. Sébastien

    Probably the band I’ve listened to the most in my life!…

  91. Why can’t I be me? Is missing (though it’s horrible and I’m sure no one has even noticed)

  92. Alicia Walker

    Love

  93. Stephanie Record

    So many great song, really hard to narrow it down to 25. Not many bands you can say that about.

  94. Josh Martell

    Only 25?

  95. I love that you’re doing this

  96. 25? That’s tough

  97. Per Olsson

    The Best of The Best

  98. This was painful but fun. Hard decisions had to be made. Thanks!

  99. Thomas Mulvihill

    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…

  100. Bianca Haase

    Hard to decide for 25 I Love the Most of their Songs…

  101. 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 :-)

  102. Teally hard to select only 2

  103. Definitive version …

  104. Chris Blair

    The best band in the world!

  105. Jacqueline Johnson

    25 was hard to narrow down to. REALLY hard.

  106. End by a wide margin

  107. Paul Oxenham

    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.

  108. This twilight garden <3

  109. There’s always some left..

  110. Sacha cauvin

    Love the cure!

  111. It wasn’t easy to narrow it down to just 25, but I think eventually I managed not to leave out too many favourites.

  112. Jay Toncray

    Hard to pick, so many great songs.

  113. Nikoletta Kostaki

    Hard to choose. They are my whole life.

  114. Ruben Navarrete

    All-Time Favorite Band! Love The Cure!

  115. John Jacob

    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!

  116. 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.

  117. Love love the Cure

  118. Daniel Rutherford

    You should do a DM next.

  119. Leandro Adriano

    I need at least 20 more possibilities of choice. 25 is not enough. Thanx.

  120. Never Enough!!

  121. Spyros Kazazis

    It’s hard to pick only two!

  122. Good idea

  123. Allen Miller

    That was fun , can’t wait for the next one

  124. Daniel Anderson

    Awesome

  125. The Cure songs provide the perfect metaphor for life!

  126. Roberto Lancellotti

    Only 25… Very difficult… But Plainsong number 1

  127. Meredith Kirschenman

    this was quite difficult!

  128. To me, 2 Late is their best song. It’s everything Cure- happy, sad, wistful, beautiful- condensed into the most gorgeous little song ever.

  129. So difficult with only 25 songs !

  130. That was tough to decide!

  131. michael wooley

    Sooooooooo hard to narrow it down to 25!

  132. My first cure song was “love cats” in the 80’s during college….every time I hear it it brings back happy memories!!

  133. Untitled is my all time favorite.

  134. Older the better for sure. Frankly Disentegration was their last great album. Beyond that only a song here or there.

  135. Very hard to pick, although Disintegration is one of my most favorite albums. ♡

  136. Felt like trolling with “New Day” – but I love New Day, had to include it!

  137. 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.

  138. Nathaniel Mead

    Charlotte Sometimes … vote over!

  139. 25 is not enough …

  140. Next Is The E

    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

  141. 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.

  142. Samuel Copenhaver

    Again ” 25 is not enough “

  143. Jim Miller

    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.

  144. 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

  145. Tough to choose, so many good ones!

  146. Paul Metzger

    The Cure are the best band in history.

  147. Plainsong, All Cats are Grey, Siamese Twins, A Forest, and Bloodflowers are my current top 5. So many to choose from.

  148. 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…

  149. The Cure are the best

  150. Velton Coelho

    :-)

  151. 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.

  152. My favorites are “The same deep water as you”, “This twilight garden” and “Push”.
    The best band ever ❤️

  153. 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

  154. Hardest task of my life is to choose only 25!!!

  155. Doh! I voted for “Cold” when I was thinking of “I’m Cold.”

  156. Robert Smith is a brilliant song writer. The Cure are absolutely beautiful.

  157. Stephanie Rowles

    Too hard to choose only 25!!

  158. Oh god this is impossible!

  159. John Zaranek

    The Forest…Perfect Mix….sublime

  160. Nathaniel Mead

    Forever needs to be added, plus Eyemou, Why Can’t I Be Me …..

  161. Pandora1311

    That was hard but, I sang each one quickly in my head was I read the title. That was fun!

  162. Nathaniel Mead

    World In My Eyes, Hello Goodbye

  163. Yvonne Latimer

    That was tough! I went through 25 like that! So many great songs to choose…They are Gods!!

  164. Gracias The Cure

  165. Gracias gracias gracias The Cure

  166. 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.

  167. A vote for anything post-PORNOGRAPHY is wasted. Good, but wrong.

  168. One the hardest things I have ever had to do!!! You may as well ask me to choose between my children!

  169. Mat Gillespie

    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

  170. SUE rules! Depeche Mode next Matt…and let’s please open it up to 30 songs for their catalog.

  171. Started skateboarding and listening to the Cure when I was age 15 back in 1985. Have loved them ever since.

  172. Sooooo hard to just pick 25! This is why I love them so much! Such an amazing library of music and talent!

  173. stewart ord

    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

  174. It use to be so easy I never even tried
    The Last Day of Summer

  175. Burn , fantastic track for the crow

  176. There’s no Pirate Ships sadly

  177. 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

  178. Mat Gillespie

    I love seeing all of everyone’s picks….

    I love this whole concept….

  179. Impossible!!

  180. Heather Strobel

    Love!

  181. It’s so hard to choose 25 out of, say, 125 that could be selected…

  182. Bill O'Connor

    “From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea” is soooooo good.

  183. Roberto Lancellotti

    In best 25 it could be “It can never be the same” but miss…

  184. 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!

  185. Not fair. I’m still at letter I and already reached 25.

  186. Anna Dancy

    Will be interesting to see what others love compared what are “traditional” faves that get more airplay…

  187. Arabella Daniel

    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 ❤️

  188. RICHARD MASSE

    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

  189. 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)

  190. SO hard! My #1 favorite though is Like Cockatoos!

  191. Mat Gillespie

    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.

  192. Pictures of You…

  193. Norbert Fechner

    I love almost everything untill 1989.

  194. Cut (Away) and T7 from the Wish era.

    AND I’M STILL WAITING for the remaster and hoping these are included.

    Loves Cure!!!

  195. Matthew Walker

    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

  196. Enrique López

    I like more than 25 songs

  197. Since Boris Williams left the band, The Cure was never the same again.

    Jason Cooper is mediocre at best.

  198. From the edge of a deep green sea❗️ All time favorite ❗️

  199. 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…)

  200. Kelly Martin

    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. ;-)

  201. I vote for Charlotte Sometimes,Close to me,Disintegration. So hard..no vote also for other beautiful songs..Thanx Robert for all!!xo

  202. moshgirl

    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!

  203. I can hardly wait to see the results!

  204. Scott Virano

    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.

  205. There’s a lot I like, but so much to name! Still, can’t believe I saw them this past summer in Chicago.

  206. I was on the old site. Glad you are back. Wish we could have picked a few more cure songs but great poll.

  207. Just picked my top 25! This was so much fun, thank you

  208. 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

  209. Seems like PLAINSONG is heading into pole position, but only right so!

  210. 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

  211. This was really difficult. The Cure is my favorite band and they have so many great songs.

  212. Sara Schuetze

    LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Untitled. So good…

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