| Product: |
Disintegration - The Cure |
| Date: |
17.07.01 (8 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Timeless themes
Disadvantages: A few 'filler' tracks
The latter half of the '80s saw the Cure bring a sparkling pop flavour to their music, revitalising a band that seemed to be heading toward self-destruction after the intensity of albums like 'Faith' and 'Pornography'. It was with mixed reactions then that fans and press greeted the news that 1989's 'Disintegration' was going to be a return to the mood of earlier albums.
When it arrived however, any fears were proved unfounded. Though Robert Smith's lyrics occasionally floundered in the same sea of melodrama as 'Faith' and 'Pornography' (as in 'Prayers for Rain'), the album contained some of his best writing yet and musically the album was far richer in texture than anything they had recorded.
'Plainsong' is a beautifully fragile song, the music sweeping like a breaking wave toward the viewer while Smith whispers:
"I think it's dark and it looks like rain"
You said
"And the wind is blowing like it's the end of the world"
You said
'Pictures of You' is (along with 'Lovesong'), the most conventional pop song on the album, and it remains one of their best. 'Lullaby' sounds slightly out of place, a quirky, nightmarish little number that sounded like it had lain lurking in Smith's head from around the time they recorded the deranged 'The Top'.
Other highlights include 'Same Deep Water As You', reminiscent of 'All Cats Are Grey (from 'Faith'). Here, as throughout the album, the subtly interwoven guitars and keyboards create a rich texture dripping with beauty and emotion. As Smith is consumed by the song, his words linger at the surface:
"I will kiss you I will kiss you
I will kiss you forever on nights like this
I will kiss you I will kiss you
And we shall be together..."
The title track was the album's equivalent of ea
rlier epics 'A Forest' and '100 Years'...on and on it plays, constricting the listener with its endless guitar, Smith protesting "I never said I would stay to the end...When we both of us knew how the end always is"
Elsewhere on the album, Smith continues to explore the theme of decay and the inevitability of loss. Unlike 'Faith' and 'Pornography' (which shared similar themes), his lyrics are less self-absorbed, somehow infused with the passing of the seasons and other universalities. And the music here his more complex, richer and lighter.
The album closes with a pleasant drum rhythm carrying the words of a simple, untitled love song:
"Never know how I wanted to feel
Never quite said what Iwanted to say to you
Never quite managed the words to explain to you
Never quite knew how to make them believable
And now the time has gone"
Disintegration saw the Cure returning to earlier preoccupations with all that they had learnt from their excursions into pop. The result was their most consistent and satisfying album to date, and one that they would not better until 2000's 'Bloodflowers'
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