Charlotte Sometimes

Released on Polydor on 9 October 1981, after Faith, it reached number 44 in Britain. Both sides took their titles and lyrics from Penelope Farmer's 1969 children's book Charlotte Sometimes. Smith called it a very straight lift, and several lines follow the novel closely, including the opening about faces and voices blurring into one. The B-side Splintered in Her Head is also a line from the book. The band later wrote another song from it, The Empty World, on The Top in 1984.

It was recorded on 16 and 17 July 1981 at Mike Hedges's Playground Studio, between European festival dates and a North American tour, and produced by Hedges and the band. Smith played guitar and synthesiser, Gallup bass and Tolhurst electronic drums. The video was shot at Holloway Sanatorium on Chris Parry's advice. The sleeve shows a distorted picture of Mary Poole, the same photograph that appears undistorted on the 1990 Pictures of You single. The Rough Guide to Cult Pop called it a goth masterpiece of doomed beauty and ruined elegance.