The Cure The Cure - Greatest Hits

The Cure The Cure - Greatest Hits

The Cure The Cure - Greatest Hits

As Greatest Hits--and particularly the busking pavement jazz of "Lovecats"--reminds us, the best Cure singles were very often tangential exercises; they offered a goth-free playtime divergence from some of the weightier studiousness of those early albums. Or, as smudged frontman Robert Smith says of this 18-track collection, "Songs that are sung with a smile." This wasn't always true--witness the refrigerated fogginess of the classic "A Forest," the Blair Witch Project of its day. What this compilation does is focus attention on the Cure's perennial unpredictability--the breathless claustrophobia of "Close to Me," the New Order-lite of "The Walk," the brass- section embellished thrust of "Why Can't I Be You." Oddly, chart-wise, the Cure's lost weekend began immediately after "Friday I'm in Love," their most ebullient melodic moment and the ultimate "clocking-off to kick those heels" anthem. But at least the inclusion of two new songs, "Cut Here" and "Just Say Yes" (with Saffron from Republica), indicate that the Cure remain a healthy, ongoing concern. --Kevin Maidment
The Cure The Cure - Greatest Hits

What if God isn't who you think He is and neither are you

 What if God isn't who you think He is and neither are you

 What if God isn't who you think He is and neither are you

From the Back Cover

We thought we were cured. We thought so, but most of us unwittingly carried an old, dead outlook into our new life. We couldn't measure up to a standard we created, so we convinced ourselves it was God's. We read his words through our grid of shame and felt ourselves fall farther and farther behind. We took it out on each other, judging, comparing, faking, splintering. Some of us retreated from the whole charade, becoming cynical, mistrusting, jaded from hope. Our marriages, churches, families, friendships, our marketplaces, our culture... they all need the cure.

But God's cures rarely come in the form we expect. 

What if, indeed, God is not who we think he is... and neither are we?

 What if God isn't who you think He is and neither are you

Songs for a New World (Original Cast Recording)

Songs for a New World (Original Cast Recording)

Songs for a New World (Original Cast Recording)

Some people have been lamenting the supposed "death" of American musical theater since the 1960s. While such eulogies have always been overblown, the fact remains that producing a new musical has become increasingly expensive, discouraging producers from taking the risks necessary to produce great art.

SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD, an off-Broadway revue, introduced the world to musical theater's greatest new hope, composer/lyricist Jason Robert Brown. From the first bars of the opening number, Brown boldly declares, "Time to fly!" The music soars, enhanced by four talented actor-singers, a five-piece band, and one neophyte director (Daisy Prince, Hal's daughter) to bring joy to the flight.

THE MESSAGE:
The opening number describes "A New World." What this world may be is subject to multiple interpretations: the transformations of individuals in challenging moments, the risks faced by innovators throughout the history of the western hemisphere ("The New World"), and perhaps Brown's and Prince's talents bursting forth into the musical theater world. Whatever else this world may be, it is bold. It's "crash[ing] down like thunder," "charging through the air," and "shattering the silence."

While each remaining song is a self-contained story, each portrays characters that inhabit this new world, facing their challenges with a variety of emotions: humor, angst, determination, and joy. There are the unnamed contemporary people, including the woman who finds her invulnerability to be the source of pain, the confident man inexplicably scared of commitment, and the former couple re-uniting after time of personal discovery.Read more

Songs for a New World (Original Cast Recording)