Reviewed by Jim Coursey
Released: May 4 1982 The Cure Pornography Genre: Psychedelic Goth Allen’s Rating: 4 out of 5 Jim’s Rating: 5 out of 5 Highlights: One Hundred Years A Short Term Effect Siamese Twins The Figurehead Allen's Additional Highlights: The Hanging Garden “I know for a fact that we recorded some of the songs in the toilets to get a really horrible feeling, because the toilets were dirty and grim.” - Robert Smith, Rolling Stone, 6/18/04 “It doesn't matter if we all die Ambition in the back of a black car In a high building there is so much to do Going home time, story on the radio.” Over the course of their career, The Cure have covered as many moods and styles as Eve has faces, but “Pornography” establishes itself as their heaviest, most despairing, and most singular album from its outset. If the druggy, whirling guitars, thundering drums, and sinister bassline of “One Hundred Years” isn’t evidence enough, then those opening lyrics Robert Smith wails seal the deal. The third in a progression of albums with hazy, indistinct cover art, the searing red of “Pornography” heralds its sharp tonal shift from the previous albums’ fade to grey. The Cure abandons the minimalism of their previous albums: gone is the tight, sharp pop punk of “Three Imaginary Boys” and the meandering stoicism of “Faith.” “Pornography” is a defining album of the goth canon. Here The Cure amped up its angst to match the dark energy of Bauhaus or The Birthday Party, while running it all through more flanger and delay pedals than Siouxsie could shake a stick at. Only the relatively gentle, measured “Siamese Twins” harkens back to the previous album’s tone. The rest of the disc plays like a tiny mouse casting a towering shadow -- a modest three piece has been transformed into a hulking giant through muscular performances and a cavernous reverb. The darkness of “Pornography” obscures the fact that this is in fact a heavily psychedelic album, made clear in songs like “A Short Term Effect,” which is replete with murky Arabesque guitars and vocals that are so effect-laden the spiral downwards into the abyss. Whether or not this album was a commercial success, it surely was a boon to digital effects manufacturers. Reportedly the band was drunk and tripping for most of the sessions, not to mention overworked, but their state of mind was captured perfectly by producer Phil Thornalley. (Thornalley’s work would help usher in their forthcoming moodswing on the positively buoyant follow-up single “The Lovecats”, which he not only produced but also played its famous stand up bass line.) It’s hard to pick highlights, as for me the entire album is strong. It becomes impenetrably heavy in the final cut (the album’s title track), but the song is nonetheless thematically fulfilling. Beyond that, the album lacks an obvious single. While the band would prove its mettle as a singles act by the time the 1986 compilation “Standing on a Beach” was released, “Faith” and “Pornography” traded artistic vision for viable standout tracks. Neither 81’s “Primary” or 82’s “The Hanging Garden” matches the stunning non-album single “Charlotte Sometimes,” and are to my mind their weakest singles of their first decade. “The Hanging Garden” is a good track, with its martial beat and crisper sound, but I find both “A Short Term Effect” and “A Strange Day” to be catchier. That said, I can’t fault the band for its more daring choice. “Pornography” is perhaps the band’s ugliest album, but if you don’t mind wallowing the horror. it's one of their most distinct and fulfilling. Ask me to name my favorite Cure album and my answer will change with the day, with “Head on the Door” and “Standing on a Beach” (cassette version with the B-Sides) as other contenders. It’s not as forgiving as “Faith” or rich or mature as “Disintegration”, but it hits harder than either the former’s funereal walkabout or the latter’s finely texured soundscapes. The band imploded in the course of making it, which no doubt makes it an uncomfortable listen, but it’s drummer/keyboardist Lol Tolhurst’s favorite Cure album, and I can’t disagree.
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