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Pornography is most probably one of my favorite albums of all times all genres included. Released in 1982, this is the fourth full length project from British post-punk band the Cure fronted by singer songwriter and guitarist Robert Smith and including band members Simon Gallup at the bass and Lol Tolhurst on drums at the time. Their past two albums 17 seconds and Faith both respectively released in 1980 and 1981 adopted a more atmospheric, moody and gothic sound to the post-punk genre, reminiscing a lot of what Joy Division did.
In this album, the band is at their bleakest and most crushing yet. The opener "One hundred years" kicks off this album with a spiraling guitar riff that sounds like a Pandora box has been opened. The opening lines "It doesn't matter if we all die" set the tone for the rest of the album. Robert Smith on this track sings about how cyclic our existences pretty much are, all the wars, cruelty we inflict to each other. A lot of very cynical lyrics when it comes to death are to be found too, picturing it like a shadow that creeps at every time and that can hit at anytime. A surreal and intense song to open up this album.
The next track "A short term effect" follows pretty smoothly with lyrical descriptions of a bird falling down to his death. But this song in particular is about substance abuse, or more particularly how bleak it is to face reality without it. We can observe that the band also includes psychedelic influences on this album to their sound.
"Hanging garden" starts with punchy drums and a dancy bassline that get stalked over with sound effects and guitars. Lyrically Robert Smith paints this very Daliesque painting of a surrealist garden. One of the more cryptic songs on this album with an instrumental that sounds very similar to "Atrocity Exhibition" by Joy Division, some of Smith's best vocal performances on the album are to be found here too.
"Siamese Twins" may seem like a breather from the very haunting and nightmarish tracks that preceded it but if you look closely at the lyrics its one of the more disturbing. It's basically about someone's first sexual intercourse with a hooker that left him traumatized and how it mentally affected his view on sex and his own body. It's horrifyingly real, in a subculture where we're preoccupied about "muh slaying" we never really stop to think about the psychological effects of emotionless sex.
After that comes "The Figurehead", a fan favorite for many including me. A very cinematic track with strangely evocative lyrics despite being so cryptic. "A noise, a scream tears my clothes as the figurines tighten with spiders inside them and dust on the lips of a vision of hell" "I could lose myself in Chinese art and American girls" are some of my favorite Smith's lyrics. Some of my favorite vocal performances from him too, they're haunting especially at the end where he repeats "I will never be clean again".
"A strange day" features martial drums, a stalking bassline and a menacing synth line. To understand the lyrics, you'd pretty much have to contextualize this album historically. Made in the early 80s during the cold war, there was this global fear that anyone could single handedly end the world as we know it and Smith faces this eventuality with off-putting ease. I also think this song features some of the best guitar work in not only the Cure's catalog but of the 80s.
Following that comes "Cold" that starts with a cello bassline that gives the whole track a neoclassical twist. Despite having no guitar presence, it's certainly one of the most memorable tracks instrumentally with the way the drums come crashing down and the synths are dense and frigid. Some of Smith's most passionate vocals ever are to be found in this track too.
Now I would've consider this album to be absolutely flawless, all of these tracks to me are mind-blowing, intense, hard to stomach but also beautiful, in a way. I would consider it to be a perfect album if it wasn't for the title track which is far from being bad, it's quite good. I can appreciate the band closing the album with a more experimental touch but I think the production could've been a bit clearer on this track. The drums are a bit of a rehash of the ones found on "The Hanging Garden" and the cello can be a bit too much. But apart of that I love the very combative sound of it, to note Smith ends this whole album with "I must fight this sickness, find a cure" which is pretty representative of the sound the band will adopt after this album, adopting more pop sensibilities and leaving their gothic sound.
Overall, Pornography is one of the most intense and dark albums of the 80s for sure, it may not be for everyone to jump into this endless spiral of desperation and depravity this albums portrays but for those who do they'll surely love it as much I did over the years.
To delve a bit into this album's history, the band's was having a lot of internal feuds, especially between Robert Smith and Simon Gallup, which has caused him to leave the band after their Pornography tour to return years later. During the making of this album the band reportedly consumed a lot of hard substances, mainly shrooms and LSD, watched a lot of snuff films and violent pornography to put themselves in this depraved mood.
After that, the band will give up on the nihilism and depression that was a huge part of their sound and lyrical focus to make make some new wave and pop songs with their "Japanese Whispers" compilation. They'll continue on this streak of writing more pop centered post-punk with "The Top", "Head on the door", "Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me" before coming back to their goth sound of their debuts with the masterpiece "Disintegration".
But yeah, I'm feeling a 9.7/10 on this album. What do you think of it ?
Fav tracks : One hundred years, A Short Term Effect, The hanging garden, Siamese Twins, The Figurehead, A Strange Day, Cold
Least fav track : Pornography
Genres : Gothic rock, post-punk, darkwave
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