Pornography

The Cure

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Original Release Date: 1982
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Elektra / Wea
• ASIN: B000002H5T
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (123 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #89,579 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. One Hundred Years

2. Short Term Effect

3. Hanging Garden

4. Siamese Twins

5. Figurehead

6. Strange Day

7. Cold

8. Pornography

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Singer Robert Smith was determined to make the Cure one of the most distinctive groups of any age. After jaunty power pop was in vogue, Smith shifted to tone poems and ethereal freakouts. However, with Pornography, he entered the downward spiral that prompted the greatest music of his career. The title track is sheer hell as Smith abandons music altogether. But the remaining tracks are among the finest the '80s had to offer. "One Hundred Years," with its grinding riff, "Siamese Twins," with its stuttering beat, and "The Figurehead" ("I laughed in the mirror for the first time in a year") are gothic studies in terror par excellence. Nothing sounded like Pornography, not even other Cure records. It has since been decided that Pornography is the first volume of a trilogy that's completed by Disintegration and Bloodflowers. Both are worthy, but nothing beats the first installment. --Rob O'Connor

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Robert Smith's Darkest Hour, February 17, 2004

By	SandmanVI (Glen Allen, VA United States) - See all my reviews

Unquestionably this was Robert Smith's darkest hour. This 8-track release is oppressive in its bleak attack. It deserves 5 stars due to its sheer brilliance and originally; nothing ever sounded like this before or since. But for newcomers reading these great reviews be forewarned - I did not use the word oppressive by accident. Every moment of 'Pornography' is black, despeairing and tortured. If you are on the verge of suicide this could be a rope thrown to save you or it could be a mack truck with a plow on the front driving you further over the edge. If you can get past that then what you will find is a stunningly creative album that creates some of the most sepulchral music ever heard.

The band at this time was stripped down to 3 members: Smith on vocals and guitar and keyboards, Simon Gallup on bass, and Lawrnece Tolhurst on drums. Strangely it may have been Tolhurst's lack of musical talent (an issue that would later get him fired) that created much of the atmosphere. The drumming is very flat and mechanical sounding creating an absolutely dead feel throughout; even sound dies as the stick hits the skins. Smith's voacl sound desperate and often deranged filled with lurid, bizzare imagery. Gallup's bass is potent and overwhelming in a style that only he could pull off.

My favorites are "One Hundred Years" with its sense of desperation and unrequited longing. "A Short Term Effect" is saturated with doom as the characters of the song try to laugh in the face of what may come, "Something small falls out of your mouth and we all laugh". "A Strange Day" is angst-ridden but with soemthing bordering on beauty buried deep within. Finally the title track is an complete descent into madness, as the closer on an album like this should be.

One of the great black-to-the-core albums ever and arguably the darkest. The Sisters of Mercy came close with the rare 'Reptile House EP', but that work is more of an exploration of drug-addicted frustration where this is just suffocating hopelessness.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most emotional albums of all time., November 13, 1999

By A Customer

When you cannot unlock the tears of catharsis, Pornography, The Cure's fourth album, is the key. On par with "Closer" by Joy Division and the self-titled Velvet Underground album. When your world is at its end and you are about to cash in your check, this album, this masterpiece, will pull you back from the edge and show you the light that can only be found on the other side of despair. A must for teenagers who are at a point in their life when music has the power to change everything.

I'm 26 and a bit more cynical now, but I'll never be ashamed to admit to tears when, as a 15 year old suburban kid,I discovered this album. Boys do cry. Sometimes it's their salvation.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Darkness never sounded so good..., October 12, 2001

By	Ilker Yucel "Kryptych" (Annapolis, MD United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I write this review after many years of listening to the album, and after having heard a variety of bands merely attempt to capture the brooding gothic grace this album possesses...but never succeeded. The only band I feel that even remotely came close was Autumn and their debut album "The Hating Tree." But that is another review.

All in all, this is probably one of the Cure's best albums, if not the best. Sure Robert Smith & Co. has churned out albums with more cohesion and production value over the years, and he's always been a very powerful musician lyrically and emotionally. However, "Pornography" captures raw emotions, and much of the time, the rawest emotions are those of love, longing, despair, and rage. And this is the Cure at their angriest. The album is dark and even depressing, but never so much sad as it is angry. The power of songs like "The Hanging Garden" and "One Hundred Years" hits the listener with a full-on aural assault that will leave you shaking your fists in the air with each listen. It's not without its element of sadness (it wouldn't be the Cure if it lacked in melancholy...even their happy stuff could bring a tear to the eyes, and I'm not talking about the so-called hardcore fans who think the Cure had to be sad to be good. I LIKE "Friday, I'm in Love.").

Did I mention anger? Robert Smith's signature wailing voice even sounds angry, though not in a cheesy death metal sorta way, but in that way that his voice alone is an instrument of his despair. The music is solid, showing the Cure (a trio at the time) at their tightest, especially the percussion. Not unlike Joy Division's "Closer," another gothic masterpiece where the percussion didn't receive just attention, but was vital to the sound and presentation of the music.

Overall, this is probably raw emotion at its best when it comes to the Cure, the band that brought Goth to the mainstream. Those who think it's great because its sad are missing the point. It could be happy and joyful, and I'd probably still like it, as long as it was genuine. "Friday, I'm in Love" may have been candy-coated happy pop, but at least Robert Smith doesn't kid his audience into thinking that mope is the way to go to be a good musician. For this reason, "Pornography" is my second favorite Cure album...next to "Disintegration." This album is a classic...listen and feel the power.