Disintegration - The Cure

Tracklist:

1. Plainsong (5:12)
2. Pictures of You (7:24)
3. Closedown (4:16)
4. Lovesong (3:29)
5. Last Dance (4:42)
6. Lullaby (4:08)
7. Fascination Street (5:16)
8. Prayers for Rain (6:05)
9. The Same Deep Water as You (9:19)
10. Disintegration (8:18)
11. Homesick (7:06)
12. Untitled (6:30)

Members:

- Robert Smith – vocals, guitars, keyboards, 6-string bass, production, engineering
- Simon Gallup – bass guitar, keyboards
- Porl Thompson – guitars
- Boris Williams – drums
- Roger O'Donnell – keyboards

When talking about an album such as Disintegration (1989), I have to say that I can’t be as objective as I could with other albums. The melodies and lyrics that come from this 1989 release have been with me through some of the worst and best times of my life. It is a special album, and I think it would be for anyone willing to get immersed into its beauty. It has the ability to reach the heart of the listener with very simple instrumentation in most cases, although very rich in texture and tone. It is in that gloomy and dark tone where Disintegration’s magic lies in. 

Even in songs like Plainsong, with its layers of synths and lush textures, or in Pictures of You which has some of the most romantic interweaving guitars in any album I’ve listened to, you can hear that melancholic depressive tone that Smith tried to reach with this deliberately obscure and dark masterpiece.

This album is, as said by Robert Smith himself, supposed to be a dark depressive one. He was at the time not happy with the image that The Cure had after its “singles period” which led to his depression and abuse of substances. Another side of his depression came from the fact that he was turning thirty and wanted to release the masterpiece that most artists had already released by that age.

It can be said that all of that lead to a thematic return to the Pornography (1982) years, in which post-punk was the main influence of the band, or that it is the reason why the lyrics come back to the gothic depressive themes of Seventeen Seconds (1980), Faith (1981) and Pornography. The fact is that Disintegration is not to be compared to any of those albums, for it is the culmination of all that The Cure did in the 80’s.

No doubt it has, because of this, a lot of influence from those past experiences, but it also owes a lot to more commercial releases like The Head on the Door (1985) and Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (1987). It’s hard to explain moments like the single Lovesong, with its simple, but sincere lyrics and poppy keyboard melody, or the fearful nightmare tale that is Lullaby, dark yet commercial-friendly to the point of being a hit single, without the pop songs that fill those two previous albums. Even a song like Last Dance with its gothic bass line and refined synth, has influence from the darker sides of these albums.

The music itself in Disintegration is defined by its texture. The synth is a key instrument in setting the tone of the whole album. Song after song, Roger O’Donell displays some of the most wonderful synth melodies The Cure has ever written. For example in Fascination Street, the introductory keyboards give the impression of a rainy night in a lawless street, which helps setting the tone for the remaining of the song. In Lullaby the synth melodies set the nightmare tone of spiders and creatures surrounding a character that can only whisper in fear, until his inevitable end.

The main tone the synth has throughout the album is that of an overwhelming wave of sound, sometimes so abrasive that it leaves the listener petrified. Plainsong is the best example of this. This song drowns you in a sea of synths and keyboards, so nicely orchestrated that it wraps you up into a whirlwind of sounds and feelings that sets the mood for the rest of the album. The lush Closedown, also has this quality, leading the listener into a heavenly experience, like when the sky is filled with rays of sunlight that make it seem like something divine is going to fly down from the clouds into the earth.

The bass is an instrumental part of the Disintegration sound, being in the forefront in most of the songs of the album and going through different moods. From aggressive and violent in songs like Fascination Street and Disintegration, to angelical and nostalgic in songs like Pictures of You and Untitled. It gives body to most of the songs along with the amazing drums played by probably the best drummer The Cure ever had, Boris Williams.

The rhythm section is especially outstanding in the most desperate and aggressive songs like Prayers for Rain, Fascination Street and Disintegration.  The sense of urgency and angst in these songs reach dramatic levels, with a big contribution from both the bass and the drums in giving form and structure to them.

The guitars have a very droning nature, almost as if they were just humming a secret in your ears in moments like the introduction of Plainsong and of Pictures of You, or trying to rip your heart apart in songs like Disintegration or Prayers for Rain. The lush feeling of Last Dance, the desperation of The Same Deep Water as You, the resignation of Homesick or the urgency in Disintegration, couldn’t be achieved without the amazing guitar work that this album has.

Thematically the album feels like progressing from one point to another, especially in the last part of the album. The album goes from a somewhat lighter start, to the depths of depression in the last few songs. Starting in Fascination Street the album gets into a downward spiral of desperation, until the cry for help that is the title track. Then, in the last two songs, the feelings of resignation come out, all hope is lost and all that is left is the longing and the incurable scars.

The lyrics as well seem to get darker and darker as the album advances. Though the first half has quiet, sad and melancholic lyrics like in Pictures of You

“If only I'd thought of the right words

I could have held on to your heart”

or Last Dance

“Even if we drink I don't think we would kiss in

The way that we did when the woman was only a girl”

it doesn’t go to the levels of self-loathing and depression that some of the lyrics in the latter half show, as in Prayers for Rain

“I deteriorate, I live in dirt and nowhere glows but

Drearily and tired the hours all spent on killing time again all waiting for the rain”

or Disintegration, probably the best song lyrically speaking the band has ever released

“Now that I know that I'm breaking to pieces

I'll pull out my heart and I'll feed it to anyone”

In the end we have the last two songs. After the storm of depression passes, the inexorable conclusion comes, wallowing in self-contempt and defeat. A sour acceptance of what seems inevitable, as evidenced in Untitled

“Hopelessly fighting the devil futility,

Feeling the monster climb deeper inside of me

Feeling him gnawing my heart away hungrily,

I'll never lose this pain, never dream of you again”

So, in the end, this album is the final stage of the 80’s The Cure and, at the same time, it is a beast on its own right. It is definitely the most mature album this band has ever written. The structure of the album makes it a cohesive set of songs that work perfectly together, making it the peak of the bands career. It is a work of such sincere and pure talent, with such a high level of songwriting that it is called to be a timeless classic. It is not only the best The Cure album and a necessary acquisition to understand the music of the 80’s, but also an extremely influential masterpiece, an album for the ages that already has achieved a mythic status.

If Robert Smith was thinking of leaving a musical legacy with Disintegration, then he succeeded like not many artists are capable of doing.

I Can't Hear You - The Dead Weather

Album: Sea of Cowards

I Can’t Hear You is an alternative rock song by The Dead Weather, released in their 2010 LP Sea of Cowards.  It has a very bluesy tone in its riffs and in its vocals, performed by The Kills vocalist Alison Mosshart, who gives a very assertive, almost hostile performance. The rhythm section conformed by Jack White from The White Stripes and Jack Lawrence keep the pace of the song without doing much more than that. They give correct performances, but let the vocals and the guitars take the forefront and be the protagonists of the song. 

This track has a spontaneous feel to it, and a very casual sound, especially in the guitar work, which flows nicely throughout the song. The guitar in this track features some nasty hard rock guitar fill licks that make the guitar scream, especially at the very end of the song in response to the lyrics “I wanna hear you”. Lead guitarist Dean Fertita takes most of the credit on giving this song its cool edge in these aggressive moments.

If I were to describe the sound of this song in just one word it would be “raw”, as most of it feels almost as if it was just a rehearsal where all the musicians are having fun and letting themselves loose. This spontaneous nature makes it a very fun listen and a pretty enjoyable track for lovers of blues and hard rock that want to hear a more alternative rock take on these genres. 

Bath - Maudlin of the Well

Tracklist:

1. The Blue Ghost/Shedding Qliphoth  (7:57)
2. They Aren't All Beautiful (5:36)
3. Heaven and Weak (7:42)
4. Interlude 1 (1:38)
5. The Ferryman (7:50)
6. Marid's Gift of Art  (3:41)
7. Girl With a Watering Can (8:44)
8. Birth Pains of Astral Projection (10:34)
9. Interlude 2 (2:13)
10. Geography (4:26)

Members:

- Jason Byron - vocals/keyboards
- Toby Driver - vocals/guitars/bass
- Maria-Stella Fountoulakis - vocals
- Greg Massi - vocals/guitars
- Josh Seipp-Williams - guitars
- Jason Bitner - trumpet
- Terran Olson - vocals/clarinet/flute
                                                                                        - Sam Gutterman - drums/vocals
 

Maudlin of the Well is an avant-garde metal band from Boston that in the late 90’s and first years of the 2000’s released some of the most intriguing and thought-provoking music in the metal genre and beyond. Their songs, allegedly composed through astral projections and lucid dreams, are some of the most inspiring and interesting material in contemporary music. In 2001 the band released separately two albums that were supposed to be part of a double album. Lead by Toby Driver, the music this band displays in these two albums is some of the most delightfully original of the new century. Bath is the first one, and it shows Toby Driver peaking as a songwriter displaying some of his best material.

What this album manages to do is induce the listener into a state of full consciousness, in which he can experience the tremendous beauty and the extreme horror of life and the universe, all at the same time. As complex in structure as some of these songs are, they are all extremely enjoyable compositions, and each one has elements that are very rewarding. It doesn’t disregard the listener in the name of experimentation as avant-garde music sometimes does; instead it invites the listener in with sublimely dynamic passages and gorgeous melodies.

The album opens with The Blue Ghost / Shedding Qliphoth; its atmospheric intro leads the listener to a dreamlike state, with just a few guitar picks and melodies that give an ethereal feel to the song. As the acoustic guitar follows, we are already inside the world of this outstanding album. The piece builds up adding more and more instruments to the basic electric guitar picks that we listened to in the beginning. It slowly transforms into an ambient/jazz piece including a clarinet and an acoustic guitar. Finally it blasts into a climax, with an electric guitar playing the melody of the acoustic guitar over some heavy riffs. It is a great introduction to the world of this album.

The other face of Maudlin of the Well is shown in the next song, They aren’t all Beautiful, a very heavy and evil track, full of anger, despair and bitterness. The vocals are extremely aggressive, and fit the lyrics perfectly. It then enters into a slower dynamic with some delicate guitar interludes in between the heavy, faster sections.  It segues into a brutal jam with odd tempos and great musicianship, showing probably the greatest asset of this band, how they can make a song seamlessly flow through very different moods with outstanding craftsmanship. The song has a brutal outro with the vocals coming back with the same anger-ridden energy. 

After this sort of introduction to the two sides of the band, the songs that follow are more of a mix between the heavy and the lavish. Heaven and Weak for example opens with a soft guitar intro again with jazz elements mixed with ethereal synths and vocals. As the guitars get heavier the song enters a rockier segment that has a doomy restrained feel. Then everything suddenly breaks loose as a blast of guitars takes the song into metal territory again. The duality shown in this song alone is archetypical of maudlin of the Well’s sound in this album. The first of four interludes spread through the two albums comes after this track. It is a beautiful and simple guitar piece that gives the listener a break after the intensity of the previous track.

Bath is also an emotional roller-coaster, as it can be appreciated in songs like The Ferryman, in which the listener is taken through various contrasting kinds of styles. Its eerie organ intro creates a horror movie atmosphere that then is overtaken by a jazzy interlude that works as the calm before the storm. Before we know it, the heaviness kicks in with death metal guitars and growls, but then the growls are replaced by a feminine operatic voice as the organ takes the forefront again. By now we are drown in the ghastly and bizarre world of this outstanding composition, as it finishes with what seems to be the lamentations of some weird moribund creatures.

This track segues into probably the song with which it contrasts the most, Marid’s Gift of Art, the most straightforwardly beautiful track on Bath. It is simply one of the purest showcasings of sheer beauty I’ve ever listened to. It’s such a delicate track with amazing musicianship, with the guitars working perfectly with the wind section to create a heavenly aura that fits the innocent bliss of the song wonderfully. This dynamic with a different approach continues in Girl with a Watering Can, with its superb clarinet intro. It features soulful vocals by both Maria-Stella Fountoulakis and Driver giving the song a captivating mystical quality. The end of the song takes us into a voyage into outer space, with a guitar solo that has an otherworldly sound.

Birth Pains of Astral Projections is the centerpiece of the album. It shows all the elements that make it the masterpiece it is, and is probably the better crafted song of the bunch. The intro shows the bands skillful abilities to create great jazz sections yet again. As the intro ends, we enter the death metal section with a fantastic guitar solo that gives way to the growling vocals that are in top form. The brutality of this part of the song is complemented by the outstanding guitars and the steady drums that keep the song in a strong and menacing pace. Driver’s clean vocals take the stage again in the last third of the song, as it calms down again before the greatest guitar solo of the album is played, it is the climax of the album and it is probably its most rewarding moment.

Another interlude, this time a very jazzy piece that mixes bass, piano and acoustic guitar, precedes the final song of the album. Geography is a powerful sort of ballad. It is a mesmerizing track that keeps the listener interested on what direction it will take until its final blast that give the album a fitting and intense ending. The chorus section is especially beautiful and interesting, as it is sung by Driver with a great amount of emotion, probably his strongest vocal performance in the album. The acoustic guitar solo is just another highlight to add to an album full of outstanding guitar performances, showing again the great talent of these musicians.

Bath is a masterpiece of the highest quality that shows one of the best bands in the avant-garde metal scene creating an uncanny and transcendental experience for the listener. The level of songwriting and musicianship displayed throughout this album is beyond remarkable. It is an album that takes a lot of risks, and it takes them with a bold almost reckless attitude that is extremely inspiring, as it ends up succeeding in every way possible. Time will tell if maudlin of the Well’s output, including this album, will be remembered as timeless classics; but I know in my book this is one album for the ages, an essential piece of musical genius.