The Cure – Disintegration (1989)

The 1980’s was a strange time in musical history. Keyboards were everywhere, mullets were considered cool and Conservatism was rife. Mind you, one of the quality acts of the decade were the Gothic styled band named The Cure, led by Robert Smith as their lead vocalist.

This is their best album, so let’s have a listen to it.

Plainsong begins with some beautiful wind chimes, before launching into an atmospheric musical synth driven piece. It’s surprisingly lovely and good to hear. A nice way to kick start this album. There is some subdued and beautiful guitar here as well, which adds a nice touch to the song. When Robert Smith sings, he sounds very New Order-ish. A great way to begin this album.

Pictures of You follows with its snappy drum beat and intricate guitar work. It sounds incredibly dated here. Having said that, it’s not a bad piece. It just sounds a little bit too 1980’s in retrospect. Robert Smith does sing from the heart on this album, and shows his distinctive tone and voice here. A good effort overall.

The following piece Closedown is a dark and groove based piece, perhaps a nod to the Acid House music of the time. Still, it’s The Cure for sure. Lyrically, it is a song about running out of time to do things. Robert Smith doesn’t come across as a person with happiness lyrically, it follows the tradition of bands since Joy Division.

The next piece sounds very poppy. Lovesong is a good piece to listen to, and sounds much less dated than the other parts of the album. Robert Smith sends a love based plea, “I will always love you.” A good tune.

Last Dance is another overly 1980’s sounding piece. In fact, although this album is a great listen, it hasn’t aged well with some of the production techniques at hand. Still, a tune is a tune, regardless of what it sounds like.

Lullaby sounds a better song with some intricate guitar playing and another punchy drum beat. There is some great instrumentation here as well. Some Nine Inch Nails like whispering is here as well. It is a sonic, funky textured piece here. A good listen.

The creepy sounding Fascination Street is such a good piece, even today. It shows that quality, not quantity, matters in music. This is a dark trip of sorts. Good effort. Nice music for Goths out there. It has an awesome funky bassline to boot as well.

The next song, the melancholy Prayers For Rain is an even more trippy sounding piece that is very memorably and catchy to the listener. It’s so good to hear this sort of thing, and makes a great listen. The guitar riff played here is fantastic. The lyrics are about desperation here.

The Same Deep Water As You starts off with rain sampled in the background, before going into a more slow tempo piece than before. It continues the theme of the previous song with more desperation styled lyrics here. A good effort.

Disintegration is the title track. It sounds like a good jam at hand, but seriously, is much better than you’d expect. It shows a person lyrically who is self-decline. Typical Gothic style stuff, but fits the album very well. A nice mash up here. The outro is super cool too.

The next piece sounds rather depressing. Homesick begins with a sad sounding piano riff and cleanly plucked guitar parts, then it launches into some very good yet subtle drum driven piece The subsonic bassline then follows and then the lyrics here seep right into the song. Some intelligent and poetic lyrics are here for the listener at hand.

The Untitled last piece here starts with an accordion sound, before launching into the last track on the album. Some dark and surreal lyrics are here, and this is a nice way to finish the album. The pounding drum beat here is awesome.

Disintegration is now viewed as a classic in its own right, and made The Cure critically acclaimed for their work in music. Although that may be the case, the album could have benefited from some editing of the sounds and the length of the songs. Still, it is an interesting listen anyway. It is gloomy and dark, but not overall depressing, fortunately.

7/10