Disintegration

This work demonstrates an intelligence and sincerity rarely found in most commercial releases, and the layered, almost orchestral sound holds your attention ceaselessly. A classical influence can be heard although The Cure's trademark and individual 'sound' is present throughout. The structures and patterns within the songs are never too little or too much, but sound completely natural and 'right'. I have found that the more I Iisten to this album the more things I hear, and if I could only listen to one CD for the rest of my life it would be this one!

The sleeve of this album tells you to "Play This Music Loud" and it's recommended, if only for the shock you get when the windchimes of opening track Plainsong fade and the song kicks in proper !

Despite The Cure's reputation, there are no "heavy" rock songs on here (apart from one song mentioned later), so the shock of Plainsong's introduction is based on it's power rather than the volume of the instruments.

The song is driven heavily by a synth section, which includes the main riff and a "bass" synth part played by bassist Simon Gallup (there is no bass guitar on this song). Like almost every song on Disintegration, Plainsong plays once through the whole of the main section and plays once through the whole of the "change" before going back to the main part where the lyrics begin. This is an excellent opportunity to hear The Cure in an instrumental fashion, and it's testament to the quality of all of the songs present that it's actually really really enjoyable to listen to the songs playing for a good 3 minutes before a single word leaves Robert Smith's mouth.

Pictures Of You is the first of 4 really long songs coming in at 7:27. This, like several of the songs, takes several minutes to build up, with additional guitar or keyboard parts coming in at the end of every few bars until finally going back to the start again. Again as stated, this is enjoyable and actually very trance like. The nice thing about this song is that the bassline changes completely into something else when the vocals begin, while managing to stay in the same key. A nice trick, made all the nicer as it changes again for the end section of the song.

Closedown sees a return to the thunderous tom-tom style of drumming that covers the earlier Pornography album, although this song is all grown up and mature - a far cry from the substance-fuelled psychoticness of Pornography.

Lovesong (a No. 2 hit in the US and most played song on US radio in 1989) and following song Last Dance keep up a feel of maturity, covering the same topic of relationships as the opening two songs. Lovesong has a bit of an "adult rock" feel to it, although the irony is that it actually blows away all that sort of stuff !!! Last Dance for all of it's mature lyrical content has a very gothic feel to it, with it's spooky keyboard line and moody guitar effects.

Lullaby up's the goth quota immensely ! A weird accoustic guitar riff, spiky plucked violins and scary keyboards, topped with haunted-house lyrics about a spider ! Don't play this to your 6 year old before putting him/her to bed ! On second thoughts do, your kid may grow up as weird as their Cure loving parents !!

Fascination Street is the one rock song on here, again very much in the goth style although without the bats and blood nonsense that 99% of goth bands waffle on about. The bassline is the greatest in the world and that's all I need to say.

Prayers For Rain and The Same Deep Water As You go back to Closedown and Last Dance territory all having the same guitar and keyboard sounds. If you're not used to The Cure it might not sound very good to hear that the same sounds are being used throughout an album. With The Cure, and this album in particular, it is very important that a certain mood and theme is achieved and the best way to do this is by having a particular sound running throughout. Believe me it works and sounds great. Each song is so different from the last in terms of structure and what each song actually does but the similar sounds keeps your emotive state at the same level, so that by the end of the album you can truly state that you have just had an awesome listening experience over the last hour.

Title track Disintegration is the fastest song on the album and is placed perfectly towards the end of the album, helping to build toward a nice crescendo. "Looping" the same part throughout songs is the order of the day on this album (I don't mean electronic or sequenced "looping") and Disintegration's repeating phrase is a nagging bass guitar line which commands the whole of the song. Again, moving keyboards come in at key moments building the emotion, the subject matter of this song being about leaving your partner (what lovely topics he chooses!!)

Homesick sees a piano and guitar playing in tandem, often crossing over into the same notes making them almost sound as one. This keeps up the same mood of the album, but it's actually got quite a late-night piano-bar feel to it, the piano and Smith's voice getting quite funky at moments, almost threatening to break out of the confines of the album.

Finally Homesick sees a bit of a happy ending for the album, at least in terms of the music - as the lyrics stick to the same gloomy territory (which is a good thing). A nice accordion plays on this track and there's some quite jangly guitar on there. Even the way the gloomy lyrics are sung is quite happy. It leaves the album feeling complete and goes out on a high note after the trauma of the last hour.

If you are into alternative rock music, this is the absolute essential must have album and is rated as an influence by the majority of alternative music acts.