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.