Featured in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Disintegration remains The Cure's highest selling record to date, with more than 3 million copies sold worldwide. The album was also a critical success, eventually being placed at number 326 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic called it the "culmination of all the musical directions The Cure were pursuing over the course of the '80s."
In a 1989 interview, Robert Smith was quoted about the album Disintegration. “The whole project was triggered by me writing the words to the song Disintegration around the time of my 29th birthday. It was just the sense of falling apart I can’t really seem to shake off, I think it’s true for everyone really. (…) Getting back to things we used to do with a bit more bite to them, rather than just pop stuff”
(…) I still try and fight against it, the mental decline and the psychical decline that comes with age, your loss of a sense of wonder of things. Having nephews and nieces it has brought home a little more frequently how old I’m getting, just inside my head, not being fascinated by things I used to do, is just a bit worrying, a bit sad. I try and fight against it by doing something like writing songs”
Plainsong – The Cure
(reminds me of Joy Division’s song Atmosphere)
Pictures of You – The Cure
(According to interviews, the inspiration of the song came when a fire broke loose in Robert Smith's home. After that day, Robert was going through the remains and came across his wallet which had pictures of his wife, Mary. The artwork of the single above is one of the pictures.)
Lovesong – The Cure
(The song was a wedding gift to Robert Smith's newly wedded wife.)
Lullaby - The Cure
(The song won Best Video at the 1990 Brit Awards)
Fascination Street - The Cure
The same deep water as you - The Cure
Disintegration - The Cure
Homesick - The Cure
Untitled – The Cure
What do you guys think of the music? Check back next week for part 4 of 4 where I look at my favorite Cure songs from 1992-2000
Robert Smith quotes from:
The Story Of The Cure - Much More Music (2000)
The Cure on That Was Then… This Is Now (1988, BBC documentary)
Out of the Woods - The Cure (2004) (Chrome Dreams)
I really like The Cure's music, but I must say they were a big disappointment live. I saw them at the Roskilde Festival last week, and they were just so snobby... didn't say anything, didn't try to integrate the audience - they looked as if they'd rather be sleeping than playing.
ReplyDelete@Mette: Cool you got to see them live, The Cure have a reputation of being a great live act in terms of music.
DeleteToo bad they didn't interact with the crowd. Maybe Robert is shy or was having a bad day ( :
A great album. Pictures of You remains one of my favourite songs ever!
ReplyDelete@Dan: Disintegration (1989) is indeed great, tough to argue against that!
DeleteLots of terrific albums by the band, but I don't like what The Cure have released post 2000.
Oh I love Lullaby, Fascination Street and Pictures of You. Interesting story about the pictures in the wallet, too.
ReplyDeleteI found that story about the pictures in the wallet on wikipedia, fingers-crossed its true!
DeleteI might be dating myself a bit but... I picked this up the year I graduated from High School, loved it then and it has aged really well. Nice selection Chris
ReplyDelete@3guys1movie: I love when music can be dated to particular times or events in our lives
DeleteOK, you've just inspired me to listen to this album for the first time in ages. I forgot how many songs I love from this. I think the title track is my favorite.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, I can relate to Mette's comment above. The Cure's Curiosa festival was my first ever concert experience, and while the other bands were great, most of The Cure's set fell flat. I did get a huge kick out of hearing the Disintegration songs, though.
@Eric: The title track "Disintegration" is indeed amazing, could easily have been a single.
DeleteThe Cure having a reputation as a great live band I based on people saying the album sound is reproduced live, but I haven't seen them perform, so not first-hand experience.
One of the greatest albums ever. All killer no filler.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous: A great album. All killer no filler, that rhymes :)
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