Whilst South Park may have declared Disintegration to the be best Cure album ever, for me the accolade was merely it had the best one side of a Cure album. I found the first 5 songs on the album to be outstanding, but despite several attempts, I found very little to like on side 2, thinking it to essentially be just noise, and abandoned any further attempts to get into it. Let's see if I find any difference 30+ years later.
"Plainsong", the opening song, is perhaps my favourite all time song by The Cure, whilst the next 4 tracks would be somewhere in the top 20. Such is the popularity of "Plainsong" it remains the regular opener of live concerts even after all the years since its release, and is the fulfillment of the development from "The Funeral Party" and "One More Time". It is probably their finest demonstration of the formula of majestic keyboards and melodic bass lines before leading into the wistful vocal.
At over 8 minutes long, "Pictures of You" epically shimmers along in the traditions of anthems such as "Just Like Heaven" and "A Night Like This". It has a great guitar riff that I can happily listen to over and over again.
In many ways "Closedown" is very similar to "Plainsong" but the drumming has much more urgency and to the fore. There is still the hypnotic synthesizer and great guitar playing. Unsurprisingly, it is also one of my favourites.
"Lovesong" is out of kilter with the rest of the album in so far as it has a positive tone and might even be considered a pop song. At around 3 and a half minutes, it is the shortest song on the album. It was covered by Adele and I read in one of the Sunday newspapers that her mother was a big The Cure fan. After recording the song Adele took it home to play to her mum, seeking her approval, only to be told "Love, you've murdered it !"
"Lullaby" has a jerky rhythm, plucked violin and a scary vibe. "The Spiderman is having me for dinner tonight". The award winning video is suitably in a horror-movie theme.
"Fascination Street" brings side one to a close. It was never a track that I liked, but listening to it again now it wasn't so bad. With loud drums, a typical driving bass and screeching guitar it could easily be a song on "Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me", or even "Pornography" ! Oddly, it was released as a single in the US but not in the UK.
"The Same Deep Water As You" is over nine minutes long. The pace is slow, there is a nice texture to the music but essentially it's dull. Strangely, some say it is one of the best ever songs recorded by The Cure.
Hearing "Disintegration" was a bit of a surprise as it had a toe tapping intro, and whilst hardly memorable it was listenable. It wasn't what I was expecting....
"Untitled" was also a shock. Beginning with a church organ style synthesizer before pleasant plucked guitar it was quite pretty and something to chill-out to. I also liked the slow fade out.
The re-listening of the album has lead to a major reappraisal. Whilst the first 5 songs are still outstanding, the rest are nearly nowhere as poor as I had imagined, and whilst hardly great, are much better than to be dismissed as "noise". I won't be rushing to replay them anytime soon though !
Track Listing :
Side One :
1. Plainsong
2. Pictures of You
3. Closedown
4. Lovesong
5. Lullaby
6. Fascination Street
1. Prayers For Rain
2. The Same Deep Water As You
3. Disintegration
4. Untitled
Released : 1989
UK Chart Position : 3
Singles :
Lullaby ( 5 - 1989 )
Lovesong ( 18 - 1989 )
Pictures of You ( 24 - 1990 )
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