A Forest

Released as a single on 8 April 1980 with Another Journey by Train on the B-side, it was cut during the seven-day Seventeen Seconds sessions and produced by Mike Hedges and Smith. Mixing took much of the last day. Chris Parry wanted a radio-friendly mix and Smith refused. Hedges estimated that the guitar carries seven flangers, and Gallup's bass line nodded to Jean-Jacques Burnel of the Stranglers. It reached number 31 in Britain, the band's first Top 40 entry, and number 47 on the US club play chart. The video, directed by David Hiller, was first shown on Top of the Pops on 24 April.

Smith has given conflicting accounts of the lyric, once describing a childhood dream and later saying it was just about a forest. Biographer Jeff Apter called it the definitive early Cure mood piece. Mojo ranked it first among 30 greatest Cure songs in 2023, and Billboard placed it eighth in 2019. The Guardian's Alexis Petridis put it first in his 2024 list of the band's twenty greatest songs, calling it urgent and haunted, epic but tight, minimal but enveloping.

Live

It is the band's most played song, appearing in 1,227 setlists on setlist.fm. Live versions appear on Concert (1984), The Cure in Orange and Show. A re-recorded Tree mix was released on Mixed Up and as a single in December 1990.