Touted as The Cure's opus, Disintegration is purportedly the best album in all of the 80's. Okay, maybe it's not that grandiose is stature, but it is highly praised as a masterpiece unto its own. The album is noted for its return to the gothic rock era of the band's early 80's outings, and this was a result of Smith himself, who wasn't happy with The Cure's mainstream popularity. This resulted in the singer turning to hallucinogenic drugs, which influenced the writing and recording of the album. This is a critical aspect, as it will come back towards the end of this post, and for me, seem almost hypocritical in retrospect.
In preparation of recording, the band met to compare notes of what each had written. From this, thirty-two songs were chosen to be worked on, and from them, twelve would make the final cut. Smith's writing adopted the tone of depression from the thought of turning thirty (gasp, the horror), and feeling like the band's music was being misunderstood.
There is also a bit of irony here in Smith's own personal assessment on life because in his efforts to go all dark and gloomy again, he actually ushered in a new era of goth, and with it, Disintegration became the bands best selling album of all time, spawning numerous hits as a result.
As I played through it, Disintegration sounded familiar, which was odd since I've never heard it before. I can't help but wonder if perhaps it's been used in pop culture, or maybe I caught it on the radio one day. Regardless, I feel I've heard a lot of this before.
As a whole, did it blow me away? Am I now that guy that's going to go around saying, "You've got to hear this album!"?
No.
It's okay, and it has some stuff on it that I added to my shuffle. Honestly though, I preferer the more peppier The Top, and The Head On The Door, the latter over the previous. Perhaps it's one of those "you had to be there" records. Like some of the Beetles stuff. Wherein at that moment in time it was revolutionary, but now is just music, and the impact is gone. I don't know. The Cure weren't on my radar in 1989.
For the record, or more so for my own old self to remember when I'm reading this post later, those songs I grabbed were Plainsong, Pictures Of You, Lovesong, Lullaby, Fascination Street
But, let's go back to that thing I said in the first paragraph. That part where in retrospect, things seemed hypocritical. See, prior to its recording, the band were starting to express annoyance with original founding member, Lol Tolhurst, for his alcoholism. His repeated abuse ended up in him not making it to recording sessions, and though he was credited on the album, apparently only contributed to one track. This led to him being fired prior to its release.
The hypocrisy that I see here is that you can do all the drugs you want as long as you show up to record, but if you drink and bail, you're out. I don't know, maybe get the guy help? You were, after all, Smith, turning thirty! You should have been old enough to one, cope with life to not need drugs, and two, be mature enough to want to help your friend.
I don't know, it just doesn't sit well with me. Like I said, it seems hypocritical, but I guess it also doesn't matter.
Dang it, now The Cure have me being all nonchalante nothing matter feeling.
Anyway, we now come down to that dramatic conclusion where Disintegration stands toe to toe with Siouxsie and the Banshees' Peepshow, and from there, we crown a grand finale victor.
Well, for this round, I honestly had to go back and forth for a bit. Peepshow has a lot of quirky and unique songs, many of which I had to edit myself, lest my shuffle be overtaken with forgettable tracks. Meanwhile, Disintegration has a lot of hits. Truthfully, I had to walk away from this one, and genuinely go think about it. By this I mean, nature called, and I figured I'd go do some reflecting in the place where I do my best thinking.
After deeply analyzing all the facets of both, it came down to the basics. Which one would I be more inclined to listen to again? For that, I immediately thought, "Peepshow". Thus, the winner came forth. Sorry, The Cure. The winner of this round is Siouxsie and the Banshees.
I'm sure I lost a lot of friends in that one. But, uh oh. We don't have an album to contend with Peepshow for the final slot in round two. Well, let's just dig into our bag of, my rules, my contest, and pull out who will be up against Peepshow.
Frankly, in comparison to Peepshow, it's going to do just that.
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS July 27, 1985 |
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