The Cure never expected to become pop stars. But pretty hits such as "Just Like Heaven" tempered their squalling diatribes and ushered them from the shadows to the charts.
Disintegration, however, aimed for a more cohesive sound. The result is like being enveloped by a waterlogged and extremely capacious overcoat. Indeed, "Prayers For Rain" and "The Same Deep Water As You” are the sob-fests their titles suggest. But it is not all doom and gloom.
Just kidding. It is doom and gloom-a-go-go. Surreal ("Lullaby"), romantically ravaged ("Plainsong"), violent ("Disintegration")—but always, as NME enthused, "thrillingly miserable." They had hits too, the biggest being "Lovesong", a wedding gift from Smith to his fiancée Mary.
Amid the despair, bassist Simon Gallup and former Thompson Twins drummer Boris Williams rumble impressively, notably on "Fascination Street" (about Bourbon Street, the wild heart of New Orleans' French quarter). Guitarist Pori Thompson is never far away, and was later in the touring incarnation of the "Lullaby"— covering Plant and Page. Keyboardist Roger O'Donnell is a constant; Lol Tolhurst having been sidelined (a terse credit reduces him to "other instrument").
"I was worried about getting older," remembered Robert Smith, then approaching 30. Similar anxieties a decade later fueled the Disintegration-esque Bloodflowers—a lineage that was confirmed by 2003's in-concert DVD Trilogy, which unites the albums with their spiritual predecessor, Pornography.
TRACKS:
Plainsong (5:16)
Pictures Of You (7:28)
Closedown (4:21)
Love Song (3:31)
Lullaby (4:12)
Fascination Street (5:17)
Prayers For Rain (6:07)
The Same Deep Water As You (9:23)
Disintegration (8:24)
Untitled (6:30)
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