#442: The Cure - Pornography (1982)

Zack: First off, a warning. In my last post, I got a bit nostalgic because we were listening to the second of Metallica’s four albums on the list, six-ish years after listening to the first. As I’ve mentioned before, we pick albums in batches of 20, and in addition to trying to space out the genres and eras, we try to pace ourselves in terms of going through certain artists’ catalogues. As bad as I want to burn through all the Neil Young, Johnny Cash, and Radiohead, if we did that then we would spend the remaining 300ish albums sifting through less commonly heralded acts, trying to find hidden gems among dregs. It’s better if we evenly disperse everything to the best of our abilities. But as we near album 500, that means that there are a bunch of artists with 3 or 4 albums on the list that we’re finally returning to. This includes like 10 albums in this batch that are probably going to trigger major nostalgia. And The Cure is one of them. Randomly, I really like The Cure. They’re one of the few '80s post punk/new wave bands that just really work for me. I don’t know why. I just know that I am always excited to listen to The Cure. This fascination predates the blog, actually. I remember hanging out in Emily’s freshman dorm room, with my (now) old, crappy laptop (that I still have!) on her dresser, playing The Cure. It was a scene that would have made total sense in 1990, but made a lot less sense in 2010. That said, when I need my The Cure fix, I go right to Disintegration. Several of their other albums are good (specifically their earlier, darker, more brooding stuff), but Disintegration is my favorite by a wide margin. So it’s been quite a long, long time since I’ve listened to Pornography. I don’t think I’ve played this particular album in 5 years. So it was great to revisit it after such a long layoff. I completely forgot how good songs like One Hundred Years and The Hanging Garden are. I’m really glad I got to revisit this album after all these years. And I’m glad to know that no matter how much my life changes, apparently I will continue to find brooding, ethereal gothic rock totally mesmerizing.

Favorite Tracks: One Hundred Years; The Hanging Garden; Pornography

Emily: NME (as cited by Wikipedia) said that Pornography is "arguably the album that invented goth." That's an interesting title to have. Nowadays, I think of goth more in terms of clothing style than music, and goth music seems to have been subsumed into either the metal or industrial genres. This album has its own feel, though. It's swirling and spooky and ambient (which is perfectly personified on the album cover in fact), creating a mood as much as a sound. I like some of the later, new wavier music by The Cure better than I liked this album, which probably says more about me than the music, but it is certainly worth a listen to hear where they came from and how Pornography's influence lives on.

Favorite Tracks: One Hundred Years; The Hanging Garden; A Strange Day