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Pornography

The Cure - Pornography Audio CD

A fair review of the The Cure "Pornography" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all The Cure reviews here, or go back to the The Cure tabs.

Band: The Cure
Title: Pornography
Rating:

Release Date: 1990-10-25
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: One Hundred Years 2: Short Term Effect 3: Hanging Garden 4: Siamese Twins 5: Figurehead 6: Strange Day 7: Cold 8: Pornography

Let the Punker Beware!
Weird idea. This album was little more than a curio for me; a power trio where all three play keyboards. I decided I had to hear it. Most would have recommended buying STARING AT THE SEA first, but I wasn't having that. It would have to be one or the other. I'm wishing now that I'd gotten the other. This is far from a great album. Any one of the songs on it could appear on a great album, hypothetically, but when taken together it's ALMOST enough to sink the whole Endeavor. What gets me most is the drumming. Guitars, keyboards, the occasional upright bass--atmospherics they have in spades, but that whole 1982 thud in the mix just sounds hokey. The album's reputation likely stems from its ability to wig anyone out on the first listen (as it did me) no matter what their background, and is just a fragment of the Cure's unquestioned overall genius. Unfortunately that first impression is not reinforced by repeated play.

Dark, brooding, rocks your world.
The critics hated it, but what do they know? ;)

It rocks, it's dark, it's sexy, and that's really good in my opinion. This is one of my favorite Cure albums. I can't stand the new Cure music, it doesn't have the intensity of their earlier work, and the double kick drum thing doesn't work for me.

If you're new to The Cure, this is great, along with Seventeen Seconds, Faith, and Japanese Whispers. Basically, I like anything that was done before Lol Tolhurst left the band. That's when they had a lot of passion, and a little less whining and screaming fan-girls.

One of the greatest albums ever, by anyone anywhere
If you're attracted to the darker side of life and the intensity and irony and passion and despair that goes with that, you will likely love this album. Pornography is the Cure par excellence. Darkly erotic, painful and ecstatic, soaring and plunging to the depths of disorientation, disillusion and despair.
I have owned this album since the mid 1980s, soon after it was released (nearly 30 years ago!!), and it is one of the few I have never tired of as the years passed. A masterpiece.
(Oh, and the lyrics only get more poignant, not less, as you age. Speaking as someone who was a teenager when she bought it and is now in her late 30s ;-)

.

You Will Never Be Clean Again....

Frightened by "Faith"?

Stay the hell away. Disgusted by the overbearing pop of the 1983 singles compilation "Japanese Whispers"?

This album is for you.

Pornography is product of a disturbed and distorted mind. While Seventeen Seconds, Faith, Disintegration, and Bloodflowers (all of which are absolute masterpieces) are included in the same mold as Pornography, the thematic differences are vast.

Seventeen Seconds, Faith, Disintegration, and Bloodflowers are all dark albums, but they remain mostly in sadness, sorrow, and regret.

Pornography is an album which, to me, is about disgust, hate, discomfort, rage, and, dare I say it, disintegration. Pornography is about the downward spiral, through and through, in a way that no other Cure record has been. It is a world apart from any of the other albums that The Cure ever put out (though moments of Pornography can be seen on tracks such as 1987's "The Kiss" and 1989's "Disintegration").

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One Hundred Years:

The instant the record begins, you know what you're in for. As soon as the first drum-beats of "One Hundred Years" hits, you're trapped. "It doesn't matter if we all die!" Robert Smith demands. For most bands, such a proclaimation would seem shallow and melodramatic. Such is simply not true of The Cure's "One Hundred Years". The desperation in the line "Please love me!" would, again, sound cheesy from any other band, but The Cure does it right.

This song is a ten, probably my favourite from the album. This track is as angry, uncomfortable, and disturbing as any other song ever recorded.

10/10.

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A Short Term Effect:

About drugs.

The echoing vocals on this track are memorable as is the bass and at times almost subliminal guitar, which weaves dangerously in and out of the song. There's not much to say about this song for me, it's probably my least favourite on the album.

8/10.

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The Hanging Garden:

Very good drum-beat, the only song off of Pornography that I recognised during my first listen (I own Staring at the Sea: The Singles). When in the right mood, this is one of those songs that causes you scowl and bob your head a bit. The vocals are disturbing (like all on Pornography are) and Robert Smith has said that the song is about "animals f***ing". Probably my second or third least-favourite on the album, though a classic.

8. 5/10

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Siamese Twins:

Robert has described this song as being the counterpart of The Hanging Garden. About "people f***ing". The beat is quite slow and the lyrics are amongst the most disturbing on the album. "Is it always like this?" "Worms eat my skin. " "Leave me to die. . . you won't remember my voice. " Again, for most bands, this song would sound unconvincing and fake, but The Cure definitely pulls it off. Not one of my favourites on the album.

8. 5/10

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The Figurehead:

Very tribal sort of drum-beat and with very powerful lyrics. "I laughed in the mirror for the first time in a year," to me, drips with self-disgust. "You mean nothing. . . . you mean nothing. . . " The words here are hollow and it sounds like Robert is trying to convince himself as much as anyone else. Very painful, but with unquestionable beauty. "I can never say no to anyone but you. . . . " A very emotional lyric that drips with mourning and, again, self-disgust. Robert seems repulsed by his inability to deny. As if to compound that idea, "I will never be clean again. . . . I will never be clean again. . . . I will never be clean again. . . . I will never be clean again. . . . "

10/10

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A Strange Day:

Another good drum-beat on this one. "Give me your eyes that I might see," a fairly morbid way of starting the song off. That's how it's done, Robert. Robert has said that this song is about what it would be like to be "the last person on earth. " This, however, is probably one of the most upbeat songs on the album, which speaks volumes about the darkness on Pornography.

9/10

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Cold:

Can you guess what the opening organ means, folks? Bleak, depressing excellence? Spot on. "Scarred, your back curled like an embryo," strong imagery here. "A shallow grave, a monument to the ruined age. . . . " "Screaming at the moon, another pastime. . . " "Everything as cold as life. . . can no one save you? Everything as cold as silence. . . . " The great keyboards and great vocals on this song make it my third favourite of the album. Another ten.

10/10

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Pornography:

Congratulations, you've reached the end. The song opens with the BBC signing off (played backwards) and then goes straight into the chaos. Musically, this is perhaps the darkest song on the album. And while the lyrics are, at times, as dark as any on the album ("One more day like today and I'll kill you!", "A desire for flesh, and real blood. . . ", "I'll watch you drown in the shower. . . . "), it also contains the single most hopeful statement on the record. "I must fight this sickness! Find a cure! I must fight. . . . this. . . . sickness!" says Robert, thereby ending the record on a, if only very slightly, hopeful note.

9. 5/10

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So there you have it. Pornography is my personal favourite Cure album, but it must be warned that it is definitely not for everyone. You will either love this album or hate it.

Disintegration and Bloodflowers would touch on the pain of this album, but none has, and I doubt ever will, surpass the pure, unadulterated pain, hopelessness, and anger that this album expresses so fully.

Listen at your own risk.

Bleak and Beautiful
It feels so close and, in a way, frightening. Truly in its simple and almost amateur feel, Pornography is not made worse, but all the better. It is as if you are driving through the middle of nowhere, but manage to tune into some lost airwave. Suddenly through the static sounds you hear music, and that music is Pornography by The Cure. Pornography truly is capable of creating an image of the blackest corner of Hell, yet it is surprisingly listenable. Dispite the fact that I jump in my skin everytime the title track plays, songs like A Strange Day, Cold, and Siamese Twins are ones I could listen to over and over. Pornography is black and frightful, yet surprisingly intriguing and listenable.

You can see a complete list of all The Cure discography, or go back to the The Cure tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.