Disintegration

The Cure

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 1, 1989)
• Original Release Date: May 2, 1989
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Elektra / Wea
• ASIN: B000002H70
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (311 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,785 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #9 in	Music > Alternative Rock > Goth & Industrial > Goth
  #20 in	Music > Alternative Rock > New Wave & Post-Punk > Post-Punk
  #59 in	Music > Pop > New Wave

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Disintegration is a pop album realized on an epic scale. Most of its 12 songs are long mood pieces that develop slowly around the listener. Anchored by complex drum patterns, the layered guitars, soaring bass lines, and rich keyboards blend to create a lush, evocative soundscape that captures the ear immediately; and for all its length, the album is never boring. The lyrical focus is intensely personal throughout, and, with the exception of "Love Song," the mood is overwhelmingly dark and brooding. Here are songs of remembrance that, through their deep candor, transcend the individual level to explore universal longings and fears. Robert Smith, his vocals plaintive or angry or despairing, unfolds a tapestry of loss. Broken bonds, old lies, missed opportunities, belated realizations. Anyone who has experienced the joy and sorrow--especially the sorrow--of love will find his or her deepest sentiments, noble and petty alike, echoed poetically here. --Al Massa

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

90 of 95 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Disintegration is the best album ever., January 20, 2001

By	Doesn't Matter (New York City, NY) - See all my reviews

Disintegration is the best album ever....

God bless the boys from South Park. Kyle may have gotten it right. This album is epic. Before this record The Cure's music was underground club type music, and fit very nicely in the "post-punk" label. The music on this record has an incredibly beautiful melancholy to it. Most of the songs have a slow tempo and just ooze with a dark moodiness that makes you feel. I don't know that it can make everyone feel the same, but it will definitely make you feel.

The songs are a bit long, but that is not a bad thing as each is beautifully orchestrated. There is no filler in this record, and actually some of The Cure's best work is on this album. "Pictures Of You", "Love Song", "Lullaby", "Fascination Street", and "Prayers For Rain" are probably the best songs, but every song is incredible. Overall it's as bleak as any album I've ever heard, and it is painfully intimate. It's one I simply can't stop listening to, despite the dark melancholy of the music.

This is The Cure album for people that aren't even Cure fans. You don't have to be into moody, gothic, synthpop to appreciate just how great this record is. The album is nearly 12 years old, and doesn't sound dated at all. The material is still fresh, timeless. Enjoying this record is simply a beautiful experience.

78 of 85 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Very Last Thing Before I Go, November 15, 2003

By	MICHAEL ACUNA (Southern California United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

You could have knocked me over with a feather when I heard The Cure's "Pictures of You" in an advertisement for some camera or film on TV recently. But I did have to stop for a second to listen to this classic song. It brought back many memories and once again I had to pull out the CD and listen to "Disintegration," something I hadn't done for several years.
In 1989 when "Disintegration" was released I drove my family and friends nuts with multiple playings a day at home and in my car. What was it I was/am attracted to in this particular CD? The glorious sound of it of course, the voice (Robert Smith is a God), the lyrics, the general mood of despair and sadness for sure. But with all of that said, "Disintegration" is always hopeful, always "up." The Cure revels in their downtrodden and bleak view of life but they do it with a wink, a knowing smile and not a smirk; which pretty much says it all in regards to them and their music. And anyone familiar with their playful "Let's Go To Bed" has to agree: they're misanthropes with hope, if that makes any sense at all. The Cure are of the Light not of The Darkness.
"Disintegration" would definitely be on my list of CD's I'd have to take with me if I were sent to spend the rest of my days on a desert island, so that I could forever marvel at their wit, their attitude, their playfulness and their unrelenting spirit and drive to make this world a better place in which to live. I'd listen to "The Same Deep Waters as You" over and over, until I wasted away to nothing and returned to the earth from whence I had come.

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply a Great Album, January 7, 2000

By	Peter Charbonneau "Jackson Davis fanclub pres... (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Disintegration was the first Cure album I bought back in 1989 after hearing Fascination Street on the radio. I wasn't really into their music at all up until then, but I got home, put the tape into my stereo and from the opening seconds of Plainsong I knew that this was my favorite band in the world. They haven't let me down since. This album is musically incredible and lyrically fascinating. Many songs, such as Plainsong, Closedown and Untitled are awash in long, lush intros followed by Robert Smith's introspective lyrics, back into an extended outro. Quite simply, these songs move me. They are haunting, beautiful and captivating. These are some of the best lyrics put to music I've ever heard. In Untitled, Smith proclaims 'sometimes you make me feel like I'm living at the end of the world' 'It's just the way I smile, she said' is his response. I can't recommend this album enough. Many hail this album as among The Cure's best, which it is. It is also seen, quite rightly, as a pretty dark album in mood. But it's the lyrics and the music that raise the beauty of this album above its somber mood and make it a great addition to your music library.