The Cure's terrifying Fourth. (Pornography - The Cure)

Member Name: DanielKemp

Product:	Pornography - The Cure
Date:	06/04/09 (17 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The Hanging Garden is incredible, Robert Smith has really become his own man

Disadvantages: Robotic drums throughout won't be for everyone, REALLY downbeat songs

I may as well be as honest as possible from the start. You will either enjoy the sound and concept of this album or you won't. Robert Smith of The Cure was spiralling out of control with drug problems at the time of recording and the poor bloke was being consumed with many sour thoughts, and that my friends, is the sound of Pornography. He was setting out to create an album as unlistenable, grim, glum and ugly as possible.

The album starts with the incredibly repetitive One Hundred Years which features some of the most robotic drumming on the album, but is redeemed almost entirely on the back of the spiralling guitar riff that will milk your udders from the first listen. As for the lyrics? They are as dark as to be expected. The opening lyric of "It doesn't even matter if we all die..." not only sums up this particular song but almost the entire album. A Short term Effect carries on in much the same fashion, but with some heavy distortion and only what I can describe as a muddy guitar effect making the whole song seem almost a hallucinogenic trip. As with most of the album, the melodies are there, you just have to work for them.

What happens next though is rather brilliant. Suddenly the album explodes with the exciting and exhilarating The Hanging Garden. Initiated by over-the-top primal drumming and then swiftly followed by a bass guitar furiously trying to keep up with the pace. This is all surpassed though by Smith yelping over precision played guitar"Creatures kissing in the rain... shapeless in the dark again..." ; his voice right at the front of the mix, the lyrics demanding your full attention.

It provides a much needed change of pace, because the next song Siamese Twins is quite possibly the one single most depressing song I have ever heard. It's impressively grim, but at the same time it seems forced and unnatural.

The Figurehead is probably my favourite track here. Where the previous song seemed forced, there is no escaping The Figurehead's genuine misery. The drumming follows a set path for the most part, yet subtle interchanges in pace create an uneasy atmosphere. What really speaks to you here though is Robert's spidery guitar lines. His lyrics are sad, so sad. "A night of screams tear my clothes as the figurines tighten..." he cries. The song makes you want to help this man; God only knows what Smith was experiencing mentally at this time.

Cold is a retread of The Figurehead but with disturbing synths added into the mix.

It is just as pleasing, if not more so than The Figurehead, for the misery addict that lives deep inside each and every one of you!

The closing title track is an experiment and a half. A distorted conversation starts off the song before rolling drums and God knows what else are slowly introduced until everything is consumed by an all encompassing dirge. After several minutes of seemingly little change the pleasingly horrid lyric of "A Hand in my mouth and a life spills into the flowers..." switches any doubt u may have had about ending the album like this for sheer delight. It is, well, just different to anything you have ever heard.

So what you basically get here is 3 exceptional tracks, 3 great ones, and 2 good ones. Take them together though as you should and you will almost certainly be left impressed.

I must stress that your enjoyment of this album will hang upon two things. Firstly, that you can appreciate misery in all of the various forms and secondly, that you have the patience of a saint for these songs to sink in and to make sense.

It is a true relic from the Gothic era.

8/10

Daniel Kemp

Find more of my reviews at www.danielkempreviews.co.uk

Summary: A great album if you are in the right frame of mind.