Pornography

Dense with atmosphere - jagged guitar loops, foreboding synth drones, vocal echoes, distorted field/media recordings. Lyrics express paranoia and dread - "I must fight this sickness." Initially what strikes me most is the drum sound. Sparse, driving, machine-like, repetitive, urgent. In this regard, it seems to borrow from Joy Division. This album is not a feel-good crowd pleaser and I'm instantly in love.

Holy shit that’s depressing! Will listen if I ever want to kill myself

Never heard this album, never listened to The Cure. Horror, hatred, misanthrope, nihilism, pessimism, sadism, despair. My kind of music. Synth goth rock in a Götterdämmerung frame of mind. I think Richard Wagner would have appreciated this. Musical settings emphasize minor keys, heavy echo, driving rhythms, haunting sustain—a perfect vehicle for the grim and even deranged lyrics. Makes me want to go out and get my eyebrows pierced. Speaking of the lyrics, they are suitably dark and dreary, but at times border on the trite. They tap into the lyricist’s horror, but not quite the listeners’. Robert Smith’s lead vocals are limited in range and flat in pitch and timbre. He’s not really a singer, but he is depressing, and I suppose that’s the point. Melodies and chord structures are rather repetitive. The most impressive musician in the group is Lol Tolhurst on drums. Guitar work (Smith) is disciplined but lacking in virtuosity. Good execution of synthesized colorings, tremendously enhancing the dark mood. By the end of the album, Smith’s vocals become monotonous—literally and figuratively. Black Sabbath, Metallica, and Nirvana do this kind of music much better. Impressionable adolescents who listen to too much of The Cure risk a serious contraction of their intellectual horizons—but it’s still great fun if one doesn’t take The Cure’s deathly seriousness too seriously. But overall, a good album. A really cool album. I’m glad I heard something by The Cure before my death—an event which, in the mood of this album, is to be languidly embraced. There’s your Pornography. 3/5

Maybe I've been jaded by the era of Softbois™️ but I can't listen to The Cure without fear of a man in Doctor Martens brogues busting through the wall like the Kool-Aid guy to tell me that I just *have* to try this new craft beer and also, actually, it's feminist of him to ask me for pictures of my tits

gonna tell my whole family about how much I love pornography 10/10

For those who don't know, Townsville is a tropical city, definitely not conducive to wearing long coats. Nevertheless, in 1985, I discovered that the West End hotel was the home of the city's goth scene. Both music is the best dance music, without question, as far as I'm concerned. It manages to have a hypnotic, insistent beat, while escaping the utter boredom and repetition of '70s disco, EDM, etc. Whenever they played a song I didn't know, but really liked, there was an excellent chance it came from this great album. When you find out that it was recorded while they consumed vast quantities of alcohol and drugs, while Smith has stated he was suicidally depressed, it is no surprise this album is considered the beginning of goth rock. When they toured it was the first appearance of the big hair and make up that symbolised goth. A wall of thundering noise that thrills me like few other albums.

Picking up where the great Joy Division left off, The Cure isn't exactly Joy Division or any of their post punk godfathers for that matter. Modeled after the despairing bass lines and repetitive drum rhythms that took over depressed alternative scenes in the late 70s, Pornography opts for a little more lustre or sex appeal. Whereas something like JD's Closer seems grounded in philosophies, Pornography seems more for the fan of Edgar Allan Poe with its exciting but ultimately brutal and irrational twists and turns. It's all about the contrast of the bright with the dark. Robert Smith, true to the album's title, defiles love and all of life's pleasures being brought further into despair. The album takes a few listens to come together but once it does you appreciate how well it falls apart. The album is collapsing in on itself, becoming irreparably distorted by Cold and the title track Pornography to the point of not even sounding like conscious melodrama anymore. Yet, in the hardly musical wreck that is Pornography, Robert Smith's ultimate conclusion is that he must "fight this sickness" even as it numbers him and envelopes him whole.

This one gives Disintegration a run for its money in the moribund stakes. Millions of sad goths united listening to this album, no doubt finding a kinship lost to them in the isolation of whatever suburban hell they were living. What I love about this album is that it is rawer sounding Cure with Robert Smith and co. crafting almost a concept album around depression. With only Hanging Garden (one of my Favourites) sounding even remotely like a single this is vastly different to most other Cure albums which usually contained a radio friendly pop hit or two. I can hear the influence of Krautrock and Joy Division on this album and the fact that this album influenced every dark wave band to follow. While Pornography isn't my favourite Cure album, it's darkness a bit to hard to handle sometimes it is one of the most cohesive and best works

Leaving aside questions of originality and influence, Pornography sucks. Must I count the ways? That horrid, echoey drum sound; the whiny anti-melodies issuing from the maw of chief villain Robert Smith; the monochromatic tonal palette. I'm told that Smith was depressed when he was making the album. Now I am, too. Mission accomplished. Can we call this review a wrap and go home? All kidding aside, this album pushes a lot of my buttons.: pseudo profundity, 80s production, the typical 80s vocal style. Can I think of anything nice to say? Well, the album manages to make me nauseated without the stereotypical hideous 80s synths (with the exception of Cold). Robert Smith manages some nice creative guitar leads towards the end of A Short Term Effect and on the title cut, using scales which are vaguely Arabic. That's about it.

the album just gets better and better as you listen; it has such heady, enthralling, blood-pumping beats. it's wicked and haunting and like a magical chant.

Dark, moody, rhythmic

The Cure are known for making music to feel sad to. Considering only that, this might probably be the most Cure album there is. It's certainly not the most accessible one if you're just in the middle of a regular day; but the feelings, the talent, the passion, and everything that makes an album great is here. If what you're looking for is just a slightly gloomy album, you'd be better off listening to Disintegration, but if you're having a bad day and just want something to go along with it, it doesn't get any better than this. And the drums, oh, the drums.

Ponderous, plodding, repetitive, yet for some reason this didn’t seduce me! I like the elements, though I tired of hearing Robert sing from the vast hall next door, and the drums began to sound too flat, tired.

I want to like this be use I know it’s culturally important but man it’s a bit of a chore so far. Cold is interesting Listening more and I still don’t really feel it. Oh well

11/10 This and Disintegration are the best albums made by anyone let alone the cure. Strange Days is in the running for my favorite song ever. The Cure is too important to me to be objective so take what I say with a grain of salt. 3-27-2025

Love this album. Wish I was alive at the time you could hear the whole thing in a club.

The last truly great Cure album? Possibly.

Takes me back to those moody days as a teenager. Perfect goth shoe gazing classic

Not bad but not great either. Too goth and emo for me, I can only take it in small doses. If you're into that kind of depressive music then you'll enjoy it.

Honestly every song kinda sounded the same... I was enjoying it at the beginning and then the album kinda droned on with the same feel in each song. Favorite Tracks: “The Hanging Garden” and “The Figurehead”

a MOST in my playlist from now on

This was when I loved The Cure, before they became a pop band. Early synths, distorted guitars and Robert Smith's voice it's hard not to think they'd progressed their sound and learnt as they went on from Seventeen Seconds's raw power through Faith's mesmeric rhythms this was a combination and who can argue that One Hundred Years is one of their best tracks but in reality band infighting and drugs had left them seemingly at a dead end. It's a shame what happened afterwards but it's happened with other bands too, their sound, production and mood is so intense something must break. This is an iconic album.

Moody, with great drums. Something about the drums just got me on this one. The rest of it is great too, but the drums.

One of the darkest, coldest albums I've ever heard. Absolutely brilliant

Beautifully dark and strong without being dramatic and overpowering. The drums especially after fantastic throughout. It's a bit repetitive but that's not a problem when it's all great.

wow great album seemed like i was about to have a bad fucking trip though, but that was what i liked about it

fucking great

It has superb guitar work and a stellar aura, but the vocals can be jarring.

According to Robert Smith it was either he makes this album or he was to commits suicide and you can hear it. This album is heavy and feels like drowning in tar. Fueled by LSD and booze, it really does sound like something you write while in the deepest pit of depression but you decided to fight your way out of it. This is Smith's fuck you album and it hasn't lost any of its raw violent edge.

I LOVED the guitar on this album, the melodies were insidious and infectious. Some songs tended to overstay their welcome with their lack of movement, but overall a great album

Getting some influence from early 70s prog rock. This would still be fantastic and big if released today. But it's a fantastic step between the rock of our parents and modern rock. It maybe the missing link of music.

All the songs sound the same, but it's a great song! "Charlotte Sometimes" and "The Hanging Garden" are probably the best examples, both on the singles collection.

It's dork, not scary dork. Just dork

Ah, the angsty 80s. Very listenable, despite being a bit brooding.

Much like the best “cure” for Christianity is to actually read the bible, listening to 3 Cure albums has dispelled my belief that I like this band. I like 4 songs and the rest of their work can go suck a bag of dicks.

Atrocious. No point or component of this album gave me any joy. The ceaseless, whining affect. Vocals totally devoid of melody, barking depressive word-salad in that tedious, nasally drone. Uninspired drums & bass plodding along with the bare minimum as if the guys were held at gunpoint. Guitar washed in disgusting spacey distortion with and even more whiny sound than the vocals. God everything about it just repulses me. They think of one riff, embellish it none, and then just hammer away at it for minutes on end. With how low energy and repetitive it is, you could almost call it drone music but the singer's angsty bullshit refuses to stop being present enough to do that. "Oh but it's about the mood! It's gloomy dull and annoying because they felt so bad at the time" ok well fuck that mood then. Get therapy. If this art is what they needed to cope with bad times, that is perfectly valid. You need what you need. That doesn't make it worth sharing to the public. Worst part is I can clearly hear how this band's sound went on to influence goth rock for years to come. That's a shame, I wish it hadn't. Horrid music. Highlights: the wobbly guitar riff on 100 years. Lowlights: everything.

not good

Experiencia sonorada necesaria

Too busy playing RE4 but I this one is good, one of their best but not my fave, will re-write later

It's Robert Smith, the icon. Baby bats unite!

Great album front to back.

I wasn't exactly expecting this to still be so good, but it's still SO good. I think I actually enjoy the rawness of it a little more than disintegration? But like damn near every track is good here.

In my mind, this was an album I already knew and it was 100% a 4. After finding myself listening to it four times yesterday I had to change my mind. I was really able to appreciate the background stuff, like the bass and the low end sound effects, in a way I feel I did not before. Gained a new appreciation for this fantastic piece today.

Pretty good emo music

Uh… yeah

i forgot how great this album is. so dark, so dingy, so scary, yet so tender, so melancholic, so lovely. amazingly goth deserves to be one of the 1001? absolutely

You know when you’re just curious and decide to try something a bit darker, a bit heavier than what you’re used to? You think, how bad can it be? You dim the lights, put it on, and suddenly boom you’re in deeper than expected. You’re sweating a little. It’s intense. It's not exactly fun in the traditional sense, but you’re strangely compelled to keep going. There's this primal throb underneath it all, and by the time you're halfway through, you're like, “This is messed up... but maybe I’m into it?” The pacing is relentless. It doesn’t give you room to breathe. It keeps whispering in your ear with those muffled voices and echoey moans, dragging you from one shadowy corner to the next. You might feel ashamed at first, like you shouldn’t enjoy something this grim or twisted... but then, somewhere around track four, you surrender. It’s hypnotic. Filthy, yes but sort of beautiful in its own tortured way. The kind of thing you wouldn’t admit to your mum you listened to, but deep down you know it’s exactly what you needed. And just when you think it can’t get any more depraved, it reaches that final climax and leaves you lying there, a bit broken, a bit confused, and totally wrung out. Five stars, no question. One of the Best The Cure albums ever

4.5

Honestly so great 5/5

Immediate thought. Oh so this is where Brandon Flowers got his ideas. Brilliant discovery.

The best album. Full stop.

Great. Just great!

These might be the best drums on any album ever. And the band invented goth girls. Easy 5 stars.

Great dark album, one of their best

iconic

I wanted to hate on it but the more I listened the more I loved it. The drums and synths are the stars here. It's a VIBE. I can't take it overly seriously but I don't think Robert Smith is either. It's cropped up in my rotation a few times now since my first list. Glad I waited to give a rating.

Very good at the vibe it creates

The atmosphere is actually incredible, the effects on the drums, guitars and vocals just make everything so dark and gloomy in a perfect way. I'm coming at this from hearing pretty much every cure album before including this one, but I don't know this one too well. Obviously his vocals are amazing, probably the best frontman/vocalist/guitarist of this era (/ever?), they fit the instrumentals so well, while still not entirely being totally lifeless and gloomy. The lyrics are also really creative and surreal. I feel like from knowing what the albums after this sound like, this is much more atmospheric than albums like head on the door or kiss me kiss me kiss me, as those are much more pop inspired, not at all for the worse though. This is atmospheric a lot like their latest album, however this is a bit more raw, and less overproduced, which I think generally pays off better. Absolutely no downsides at all, the more experimental songs like the last one are sitll amazing in my opinion. Its totally impossible to rank this in their discography for me as they are all amazing for totally different ways. Favourite songs: all of them. Overall around 9/10

Kenn ich und lieb ich.

Raw unsdulterated the cure, fantastic.

LOVE

Wowee! :)

An original classic!!

Great album. Wasn't a huge fan of the cure but this has some tracks I'd never heard before

me after the slightest inconvenience

The more desperate and depraved, the better The Cure.

esse tá no meu top 10 da vida facim facim quem não sentiu desespero completo e uma completa falta de perspectiva e vontade de viver (mesmo tendo uma vida muito ok) nos 10 primeiros segundos de one thousand years é maluco

pior que to escutando bastante esse recentemente, papo de 3 vezes por semana. achei bizarríssimo ter saído aqui, to me sentindo espionado DITO ISSO fantástico demais. pra mim, isso aqui eh o AUGE musical da banda, tem jeito não. o resto é bom (e alegre) demais também, mas esse aqui tem o gostinho amargo da depressão daquele naipe. a strange day é das melhores músicas do MUNDO fi!!

5,0 De maneira impecável, extraordinária, virtuosística e embasbacante pra mim pelo menos

Album fantastico. Sou fã do Cure, fui ao show deles do primavera 2023. Foi massa. Esse nao é meu disco favorito deles mas ainda assim o amo. Impenetravel, denso, sólido. Analogo a um muro imenso coberto por arame farpado. Adoro a percussao espersa e trancada. Os vocais irracionais. As guitarras casadas com os sintetizadores no seu senso mais Krautrockiano possivel. A estetica sonora desse disco é inconfundivel e incomparavel, fria e gélida, a evolucao natural da trilogia escura da banda, junto de Seventeen Seconds e Faith. Esse disco é vastamente superior ao resto da trilogia, nem da pra comparar, amadureceram muito... E angustiaram muito para chegarem nesse som e nesse conteudo lirico. Esse disco se destaca muito na discografia da banda. Nao tem absolutamente nada pop aqui, diferente dos outros albuns deles. Ele é consistentemente gloomy do comeco ao fim. As vezes é dificil digerir isso e eu entendo que nao é pra todo mundo, mas quando ele funciona, ele funciona muito bem. Excelente. Consistente. I must fight this sickness. 5/5

This record fights thru early 80s production and creates a dark, heavy, sulfuric fog of atmospheric Coldwave. This was peak Cue of course as they were able to sell out after this. But kudos for holding out and completing this masterpiece.

Ner i källarhålet!

Back in the early 80s, I kind of disliked the generally morose feel of The Cure's Faith and Pornography albums. I had (and still have) Seventeen Seconds on vinyl, and like that very much. When Pornography came up, I was interested to revisit the album. And...I really enjoyed it. Maybe it was with a clearer understanding of the situation Robert Smith was in when the album was made. But like I say I really enjoyed it and I can see where it slots into the post-punk music scene of the early 1980s.

Okay, The Cure might be one of my top 5 favourite artists of all time after this. This was amazing.

I really wasn’t expecting to like The Cure so much. I had never listened to them before starting this list and I have to say they are one of the bands that I’m the most won over by. There’s so much good music on this list that a lot of the bands that only have one album on the list kinda get lost in the shuffle when you are listening to a full length album everyday. But both of The Cure’s albums that have popped up for me have been stunning. Like production and music is haunting and emotional. The whole sound of the band is so original and uniquely them, even though I could see someone criticizing it for sounding very contemporary for the time (it does have that inherent “80s” sound) but it works so well juxtaposed against how bright and colorful people seem to remember the 80s being. Honestly I really struggled with what to rate this cause I almost never seem to be in the mood for sour and sad music. But if that’s what you’re in the mood for this album hits like heroine.

cara, eu gostei demais

I was sad when this ended. Though to be honest I was sad when it started too.

Definitely one of the best of The Cure. I heard the later The Cure for influence of a older cousin when I was a young Teenager. I missed the first albums because I was a baby at the time. This album brought a better understanding why they were considered the most important gothic band at the time. Knowing that Robert Smith planed to commit suicide after the album chocked me, but somehow let me think how powerful, and of course painful, depression can be for the art.

A great album. I listened to it twice straight away. 5/5

Best ever

big mood

WE STAY WINNING one hundred years- 9 a short term effect- 7 hanging garden- 7 siamese twins- 9 figurehead- 7 or 8 a strange day- 7 or 8 cold- 8 or 9 pornography- 8 or 9 very atmospheric, even feeling foreboding or crushing at some points. album to lay down on the floor and stare at the ceiling to

5 PORNOGRAPHY IS THE BEST ALBUM EVERRR fave songs: one hundred years, a short term effect, the figurehead, cold, pornography

Interesting rock/new wave kind of music

who hurt bobert 💔

Literal dream sex goth synth pop top tier sadness magic - ticks all the boxes and more

One of my top 5

Goth rock has never been my thing but this may be the album to push me over the edge. Wonderfully produced.

4.5/5

Second only to Disintegration. Classic

Moody

This was a dark, epic album that I really enjoyed. The whole thing builds in a really interesting way. Loved it!

could i write poetry to this? Y

The Cure are one of my favourite bands. Fabulous album. Great songs.

Absolute classic

obviously ik this isnt the only multilayered music ever made where each layer is like this distinct and clear thing creating a Symphonic effect, maybe not even with this set of elements (i suppose the general sonic setup isnt entirely uncommon for post punk), but also fuck man, i kinda feel like nothing else sounds like this regardless. or at least nothing else produces the same effect...surreal but precise, intuitive but cold, nightmarishly sad but baroquely beautiful, falling apart but literally everything is in exactly the right place. idk. theres some chemistry between Clear Construction and Freeflowing Feeling here that at least right now feels unique. also just loaded with a bunch of songs that are Slightly the best song ever. cure discog dive from me Sometime im sure

Moody and atmospheric, but with more post-punk elements than their later albums. Personally, I love the mix of both and thoroughly enjoyed this album.

Thematic echoes And boldly contrasting drums Add to eerie rock

God I love this album. The dramatic lyrics are a perfect match for Robert Smith's voice and framed beautifully by dreamy and dark melody. There will never be a moment where this album isn't cool. Just place me in a dark cave filled with bats and let me listen over and over.

It's fucking Pornography. What else needs to be said? (You can tell I'm so not used to reviewing albums in a while lmao) 10/10