CD Odyssey Disc 465: The Cure

I finished listening to this next album yesterday, but I couldn’t think of what I wanted to say about it, so I gave it another round.  Then, giving my wife Sheila a ride to a dinner engagement we talked about it a bit and she gave me the inspiration I needed, and some good insights as well.  She’s a clever girl – just like the lead raptor in Jurassic Park, but way better looking and without all the murderous stalking.

On to the album!

Disc 465 is…Disintegration

Artist: The Cure

Year of Release: 1989

What’s up with the Cover?  The world’s creepiest flower collage.  The pale face staring up reminds me of Frodo’s journey through the Dead Marshes in Lord of the Rings, except without any excitement or dramatic tension.  All that I’m left with is a soggy, pointless mess and that picture of Robert Smith.

How I Came To Know It:  As I noted when I reviewed “Bloodflowers” back at Disc 224, Sheila bought the two albums together when they were on sale for a very reasonable price.  This might’ve been about seven or eight years ago now.

How It Stacks Up:  We have three of the Cure’s studio albums.  I like them all well enough, with “Disintegration probably tied with “Bloodflowers” as my favourite.

Rating:  3 stars

“Disintegration” is like a warm tub of water, seasoned with a bath bomb of sorrow and regret.  Just like a long bath it is a pleasant and relaxing experience but not terribly memorable from any other bath after you’re finished and you’ve dried yourself off.

The Cure know how to rock the tub, though.  They are the masters of the wistful drone.  Slow drums, heavily reverbed guitar and Robert Smith singing his emo heart out all cast a quick and heavy-lidded spell on the listener.  This album is heavy with organ and soft bells that add to the overall effect that Something Very Important is happening, and it is threatening to make your heart explode.

Maybe it’s the maudlin in me, but I like the Cure best when they’re playing slow and sorrowful, and “Disintegration” is that kind of record.  These songs are mood pieces that take their time developing.  Many songs are seven or eight minutes long, and take at least a third of their length just building up to Smith singing something.

Following this path is “Pictures of You”, which is the best song on the record (and a minor success as a single).  Clocking in at 7:24, I can only assume there is some soulless radio mix single out there somewhere that is much shorter, but fortunately, it is not included on my version of the CD.  Instead, I get the full experience of someone tearing up old pictures of a relationship now over.  This self-indulgent activity (which we’ve all done) is…er…’picture perfect’ for a Cure song, and they don’t disappoint.  Smith sings that his love is ‘bigger and brighter and wider than snow’ which is just the kind of over wrought metaphor the band consistently gets away with simply by singing it with so much conviction.  The chorus:

“If only I’d thought of the right words

I could have held on to your heart

If only I’d thought of the right words

I wouldn’t be breaking apart

These pictures of you.”

is just the right level of regret.  Even when they overdo it (“I suffocate, I breath in dirt” from “Prayers for Rain” comes to mind) they still mostly pull it off.

The other memorable song (also a radio release) is “Lovesong.” Here Smith gives his (assumedly new) lover credit for pretty much making him emotionally complete.  Much as I love this song, I can’t help think these guys spend too much time in front of a mirror trying to trace their tears with eyeliner so they’ll remember them better later.  It’s a testament to the musicality of the band, and Robert Smith’s great pop vocals that they consistently draw you into teenage angst, even when you are long past being a teenager.

Less impressive is “Lullaby” which is either a strange nightmare or possibly some kind of bizarre sex game.  It features the character of “Spiderman” but instead of rescuing you from the Green Goblin, the song has our famous web-slinger focused on having you for dinner.  Hey, Robert, are you trying to get a job at the Daily Bugle or something?  Spiderman is not a cannibal, he’s a misunderstood hero.  This song and Katrina and the Waves’ “Spiderman” leave me wondering what storylines Marvel is putting in their UK releases.  But I digress…

Apart from “Lullaby” none of the songs on “Disintegration” are annoying, and most are beautiful mood pieces.  You can sink back into the auditory tub they create, filling the room with a Lanois-like sound that lets your heart expand outward three sizes (always appropriate around Christmas).  Of course if you have a broken heart, that means it will just hurt more when you listen, but be honest; that’s why you put it on.

Best tracks:  Pictures of You, Lovesong, Disintegration, The Same Deep Water as You