Pornography

I loved every minutes of this. Wow what a sound! Atmospheric and beautiful!

If I were to describe myself using albums, this would be in my top ten. This is peak 80s goth eventhough Robert Smith hates that label. Whatever, Goth Grandad. This is spectacularly dark & rhythmic with some of the best guitar playing of the genre. One Hundred Years is my black SUV's theme song (yeah, I'm one of those weirdos that christened my car & named her Morticia) and I'll blast it as often as I can while driving. The Hanging Garden and A Strange Day are my other favorites, and I could listen to this album on repeat & find something new. Pornography, The Head on the Door, and Disintegration are my favorites of the band. And if you're a fan, do yourself a favor and read Lol Tolhurst's book, Goth. This gets a perfect 5 from me.

Bleak. Brilliant.

What is this filth?!! Imagine finding pornography on my phone this morning?!? I need a cure...ok I'll stop this record is flawless 11 stars!

pretty cool

a perfectly realized artifact that spawned a million sad imitations

This album holes up, and Cara is truly one of the most unique alternative fans of its generationLo

Il mio album preferito dei Cure senza alcun dubbio. Spettacolare

Can't complain

A true Goth-classic. Dark, atmospheric and beautiful.

A pretty unlistenable, tough album that paved the way for a lot of dark ambient and gothy music - I'm definitely a fan.

IN THE HANGING GARDEN PLEASE DON'T SPEAK!

The album is a masterpiece Epic.

Pornography is an earworm of perfectly crafted Gothic Rock songs. Robert Smith works as a perfect vessel for all these songs. His vocals tear through every song to perfection. These songs were made with him in mind. What a man! What a performer!

The Cure at their most misanthropic and self-loathing. Absolute darkness from beginning to end. In anyone else's hand this would come across as ham-handed or cartoonish, but after Seventeen Seconds and Faith, The Cure were adepts at this style. While "Cold" may earn the title of most Gothic track ever, it's "Siamese Twins" which wallows in the most misery: "Dancing in my pocket Worms eat my skin She glows and grows With arms outstretched Her legs around me… In the morning I cried Leave me to die You won’t remember my voice I walked away and grew old You never talk We never smile I scream You’re nothing I don’t need you any more You’re nothing" Hard to believe this is the same band who would write "Just Like Heaven" a few years later.

i love the cure

all time fave

Lovely stuff!

pretty good

I love The Cure whether it's the darker faire like this or the more radio friendly stuff. I don't play this one more than say, Disintegration or The Head On The Door but it's still excellent. Obviously a 5.

second favorite cure record and it’s still an absolute banger

Instant 5. My favorite Cure album... the dark brooding pained vocals and music are immediately compelling. A Short Term Effect and A Strange Day stand out, but the first 6 tracks all make but Cure Greatest Hits list. Love this album.

Þetta er nú meiri helvítis snilldin! Mjög auðvelt að heyra tenginguna milli The Cure og Kælunnar miklu.

Probably my fave cure album, the last gasp af angst before the pop takeover

good

Meni najbolji the cure ujedno i najsjebaniji😄

Flera låtar som jag aldrig hört förut. En alldeles fantastisk platta är det i alla fall.

More or less everything the Cure brought out before 1990 is 5 star (afterwards, it is 2-3 star). This album is from 1982 so it is 5 star. Atmosphere over songs. Belongs to the sequence 17 Seconds - Faith - Pornography so the other two albums should be on the list too.

my god do i love the cure. but disintegration is still better.

One of my wife's favorite albums gets played pretty regularly in our house

I’ve always been a fan of the Cure. Great album.

Classique PREFS: TOUT MOINS PREF: RIEN

Dank , dreary and depressing. A solo exploration of what it was like to be of an age where the crushing realisation of responsibility was approaching. Not my thing but appreciated the fragile beauty of the melodies.

I don’t think that there’s another album that I was so sure that was going to be on this list that I had never heard before. “Like Lou Reed’s Berlin and David Bowie’s Low, it’s an album that requires a few years of music history to pass in order to be appreciated.” That’s mighty high praise. Seems accurate.

I really enjoy The Cure when they are new wavy and poppy but I especially love them when they are dark, psychedelic and a little scary.

好听

Simply one of the best albums by one of the best bands.

The Cure decided \"we make long dreary songs, so let's only put on a few to be less cumbersome\" and, frankly it worked.

Oh boy, it's gonna be one of those kinds of days... I love The Cure but I haven't spent a lot of time with this whole album. To prepare I decided to start with "Charlotte Sometimes" since that was the single that preceded the album but didn't make it on. Great track, you can feel the angst and sorrow emanating from it. Excited to dive in... UPDATE: This was a truly phenomenal record! I think I'm going to go right through a second time. The way the final track unravels, you could call THIS album "Disintegration." Everything is just so dark yet vibrant, very much a haunted record. The beat for One Hundred Years is subtle yet oppressive; it really drags you right into the uneasiness of the guitars and lyrics. UPDATE 2: I listened to this album three times today. Love it! Definitely my favorite The Cure record.

Pure ecstasy. Not a dull moment here, this album paints a very bleak picture throughout. Probably my favourite Cure album, or close against Disintegration. Favourite Tracks: All Overall Grade: 5/5

The original emo rock group. Hadn’t heard any of these tracks! Awesome!

Ten stars for a masterpiece.

5*. Just what this lost needed

Moody, dark. Rhythmic drumming that you feel in your body. Easy to listen to, I like this one.

Oh, so you think YOU'RE depressed? You've got nothing on this.

Very dark and atmospheric, nothing like what you would expect from the more mainstream, pop like songs that the cure later released. That being said this is still probably my favourite Cure album and definitely deserves its place

Love

Jo meir trist Smithern e, jo meir glad blir eg

Sometimes this is my favorite Cure album. It’s also the first album I remember playing drums along to as a kid.

When I was young in the 1980s, I always disliked The Cure due to the pathetic looks of Smith and most of all because my elder sister was a fan. Boy, I was wrong. What great music this is! (and maybe wrong about his looks at the time too)

gateway dirge

awesome

Absolute 5. For a long time my fave album by The Cure. It's too dark for me to enjoy any more.

"Sing out loud We all die Laughing into the fire"

Batman walks into a bar with a pig... It was a hot summers day and the barman thinks it's a strange sight, not to just see Batman, but to see him with a pig that has jet black hair, black eye shadow and studded bracelets. The barman says "Is there anything I can get you Batman?" He replies "Just-ice for goth-ham"

Bleak. Brilliant. One of the best opening tracks of any album ever.

Production = Great

good shit plata hlustaði ogeðslega mikið a hana 5 stjörnur

A firm favourite when I was a young teen back in NZ, previous albums were also classics, Excellent

This album was an unexpected pleasure. The tracks all have an eerie, menacing and foreboding atmosphere. I would describe it as ambient, industrial, psychedelic and relentless. It's another good example where repetition is used to good effect. Great music doesn't have to be pretty and this dark gothic sounding album is the proof. Fabulous from start to finish.

A fantastic piece of music - as an album it's a 5. dark and speaking directly to the listener, no huge stand out tunes. but a super powerful album, something to put on and contemplate.

Absolutely brilliant

Draži mi je Desitegration kao album. Klasična saga Kid A vs OK computer. Što znači da mi je i ovo savršen album.

Arger Sound - Schlagzeug radikal, überall hall drauf. Bedrückend - Kalt - Nihilistisch. Hat nichts aber auch gar nichts mit Friday I'm in Love und boys don't cry zu tun. Teilweise richtig unheimlich. Mega spannend - nimmt mich voll mit. Top Songs: Cold, One hundert years, pornography

Dark, swirling madness. Normally I dislike the 80s tunnel production, but I think it really adds to the vibe the record is going for. Really enjoyed the atmosphere. Looking for reasons to not give this a five, and I couldn't find any. Favorite tracks: "One Hundred Years", "Pornography", "Siamese Twins"

5 stars for sure.

10/10 damn i gotta listen to more of this band

Sempre que torno al rock gòtic em porto alegries, malgrat l'aparent contradicció. I aquesta és una de les cimes del génere: percusió repetitva, baix opressiu, riffs de guitarra genials i la veu tan característica de Robert Smith. No és només la seva qualitat i originalitat, és que aquesta tercera part de la 'trilogia obscura', la més fosca i depressiva de les tres, és una obra mestra, que viu fora del temps i de l'espai

just ok

bad word

U visećem vrtu dajem ovdje cenera

I just love this sound. The haunting atmosphere that it creates is amazing.

depresivamente hermoso

Amo a The Cure. Sobretodo su etapa pre-pop. Esto por razones meramente personales (me gusta mucho azotarme). Este disco creo que es la cumbre de esa trilogía oscura ( Seventeen Seconds, Faith y Pornography). Me parece que recrea muy bien las posibilidades sónicas de un mal viaje. Un disco ácido hecho con unas buenas tabletas de por medio. Es sicodélico pero en la versión del otro lado del espejo. Muy opresivo, borroso como la portada pero extremadamente pop también. El pop que al menos me gusta a mí, el que me descoloca, el miserable, el que es posible cantar o bailar sintiéndote de la verga pero que no te aleja de ese sentimiento. No es escapista, habita el malestar. O algo así. Es brutal. The Hanging Garden marea. Es intenso. Hay un buen artículo sobre The Cure del Mark Fisher por si quieren clavarse más. Lo he escuchado muchas veces al borde del colapso mental, creo que también veo reflejos de eso en la música. En fin, me encanta. También lo quiero en vinil.

5* because Simon Gallup is a Reading fan. Also. They're just great in general.

Ich kann gut nachvollziehen, wie man diese Band über alle anderen stellt (was ich selbst immer noch nicht tue), verstehe aber wirklich niemanden, der nicht wenigstens ein bisschen Cure-Fan ist. Hier drin ist wirklich alles angelegt – für das Cure’sche Werk selbst, aber auch schon als Steinbruch für die ganzen anderen Superstars ihrer Generation und im ganz weiten Sinne Szene, die sich hier hörbar bedient haben: Depeche Mode, New Order, die Smiths (!) – vom gemeinsamen Sterben in Autos über Bassläufe, Synth-Gitarren: Robert Smith kann ihnen allen immer sinister von schräg unten hoch ins Licht grinsend zurufen: „been there, done that“. Überhaupt glaube ich, dass Robert die besten Alpträume hat, und er schafft es wie echt kein anderer das 1:1 auf Band zu bekommen. Und auch wenn ich persönlich (bis jetzt) z.B. Disintegration noch ein bisschen besser finde (weil poppiger, schwebender, taumelnder): das hier kann ja gar nicht anders als volle Punktzahl zu bekommen, in Form von 4,7.

La verdad lo disfruté mucho, en todos sus sonidos, esa parte ruidosa y la voz desesperada de Robert Smith. Es uno de esos discos en los que se puede sentir el sufrimiento, por decirlo de alguna forma. Sonaría muy bien en una reunión de amigos melancólicos o con ansiedad. Las 8 canciones me gustaron, pero si tuviera que elegir un top, para mí se conforma de "A Short Term Effect", "The Hanging Garden" y el gran cierre: "Pornography". Igual y como hay películas de terror, este es un poco un álbum de terror. 10/10

Fire

Goth touchstone. So good.

a hot n spicy listen that broods with seething menace

Fabulous album, completely different side to them from their best of and definitely makes me more interested in them

I liked how dark this album was. I thought the Cure was lighter and they do have lighter albums (as I learned after I listened to this one) but I LOVED this and it made me a huge fan of the Cure. I heard a lot of sounds that had to have inspired future bands such as R.E.M.

Most artists who touch abjection in a song do so in the middle of or across an entire album. The arc of this album, on the other hand, is from low to low. No one sounds quite like The Cure, either. The pace is perfect, the bass tone especially is perfect, and the dark is bone-chilling.

Why is this rated so low is everyone on this site braindead

I'd say the Cure albums picked for the book are not the ones I'd have gone for, my 3 would have been Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Disintegration and Head On The Door. Guess I like their poppier/ New Wave output given the two I'd swap in. Still, they're a great band, but the critic reviews of this one at the time reflect that it's not very immediate. Dark, gloomy and atmospheric - Robert Smith sounds depressed, apparently because he was. It's a pretty tough listen but certainly makes you feel something Just about a 4 because I think I would listen again, this one feels like it would reveal itself with more effort

This made me feel things I haven't felt before.

It's raw and the energy from the sound of the time it can't escape from you. The songs that the band put together go hand in hand with the feel of helplessness, and longing. It's a standout in their discography.

Every time I listen to The Cure, they get better and better.

The pace, the ambience, the imagery are all fantastic. However there is something about the Cure that fails to get my juices going, they are just kind of there. Maybe one of those bands you have to live through rather than adopt? That said it improved a lot with listen 2 and 3.. Maybe there is hope, really good album.

Enjoyed this album

The vibe is great, though the songs tend to blur together in the murky production and it takes a few listens to absorb it. 3.5/5

Really good.

Angsty rock with reverb drenched guitars. Super.

Great album. The Cure is one of the best things to come out of the 80s.

I’m excited for this one, because I love The Cure and I’ve heard songs on this album before. “One Hundred Years” has always been a favorite of mine. It’s so haunting but makes me want to get up and dance. It feels like I’m in a vampire discotheque. “A Short Term Effect” is OK, but not my favorite. I do like the beat of that one. “The Hanging Garden” is good, but neither this one nor the previous song compares to “One Hundred Years.” The whole album up to this point is bleak and reeks of despair about the state of the world, a deep dive down into nihilism. The themes of sex are interesting, too, in “The Hanging Garden” and “Siamese Twins.” Both songs center around the disgusting feelings you sometimes have about sex… talk about a post-nut clarity, haha. “The Figurehead” is my favorite so far purely based on lyrics. The wanting to be pure and always feeling like something is wrong with you, that you’re unclean and you can’t shake it off and you’re not living up to the arbitrary/unrealistic standards set by a shapeless person/entity … relatable to someone with OCD. Wow, the beat of “A Strange Day” is catchy. Makes me want to be wine drunk in a dim venue that smells like cigarettes. The synth in “Cold” is niiiice. After such a dark album, the desire to recover from a horrible mental state is much needed at the end of the title track “Pornography.” I like how it sets the more upbeat tone to future albums by The Cure. Overall, I dig the album. I wouldn’t say I “enjoy” it because it’s so heavy. But I relate to the feelings of things being futile in life and how depressing it is with how twisted the world is. You’ve got to pull yourself out of that, though, and make the best out of life.

Mørkt, gotisk, mystisk. Ret fedt album, men lidt en drænende langspillere at slutte på. Heldigvis let at skippe næste gang.

An interesting chapter in their history, let's say. They didn't like each other, or themselves. They were exhausted, and out of it. I feel better about not exactly loving this album for knowing this, because although it's still really, really good, it's not my favourite Cure album. I love the gothic sound and the blend of instruments, but a wee spark is missing. (God, Robert Smith would hate me for saying "a wee spark". Hopefully I come up with a better phrase by tomorrow.)

Very surprised by this one. I enjoyed it.

Great sound, great album

Great album… just really dark. Driving bass and drums…

7/10 a lot of fun very ambient for me

It doesn’t matter if we all die!

A little depressed he is. Conveyed with conviction.

Love the Cure but this isn’t my favourite album

Sounds great even today, I would have loved to be a teenager in this era of music

Review - despite really liking The Cure I never really listen to full.albums, and when I do it tends to be later ones. I've listened to Disintegration a lot. But I don't think I'd ever listened to this in full. It's a very good if very bleak album. The guitar playing is more technical than I tend to expect from The Cure. I often find goth rock a bit boring but this has enough going on, enough edge, and a splash of progginess that I really enjoyed. Score - 8/10 Need to listen? YES

Fantastic album!! Love when an artist you know goes another direction. Loved the driving tones and darkness of this album. I've always equated The Cure with sad love songs but this really broke that mold for me. Favorite tracks were One Hundred Years, Cold, and The Hanging Garden

Songs felt rather repetitive, but I like the sonic quality.

I only knew Disintegration before this, but I think I like this one better. What does that say about me??....

Dark and moody. Nice. Listen again.

It's not quite as good as Disintegration, but what is?

Absolutely fantastic and totally ahead of its time. Unbelievable how long this band have been making brilliant music.

my 2nd fave 80's cure album ... 100 years, the hanging garden, a strange day ... such classics of my teen angst melodrama ... truly an underrated album. solid 4.

Good dark vibe i like it but 3,9/5 woudl listen to every day but one hundred years is a bengier

actually i was considering myself a huge fan of The Cure, but in reality i guess not of their this album 🥲 only liked 100 years

It seems as if Robert Smith wanted to eliminate almost everything that made a rock song enjoyable. 🦇

Strange one this for me, as I really enjoyed it but wasnt blown away by any of the songs. Properly The Cure like. Moody, miserable, brilliant in its own way. Apparently this was their last ‘gothic’/moody record before they went more radio friendly. I think I sit somewhere between the two, I kinda wish their poppier songs had more of this style now I’ve heard this. I’ll be back, I’m sure. Probably a 3.5 for now

In this house we stan Robert Smith Playlist add: “The Hanging Garden”

Darkest of Robert Smith's catalogue. Would argue 17 Seconds was the start of Goth, along with Bauhaus, but Pornography cemented The Cure's reputation. Some great tunes, and Robert Smith's despair is evident. Glad he didn't join the 27 Club, instead gave us Disintegration a few years later and returned as a senior to give us Songs of a Lost World.

Æ likte nok det forrige albumet æ fikk opp av dem bedre, det her e litt mer generisk, kanskje? Det andre va ungdomssjelsdefineranes på en måte æ ikke helt kan sette fingeren på, det her e helt ok.

The cure is pornography? Sign me up for whatever disease that is! OH! But seriously, 8 tracks, 41 minutes and not even a single mention of a preenis or a vageenus?! OH No but really, I didn’t even get a freakin’ hard-on? HEYO! This is the first Cure album I have any memory of listening to all the way through without skipping. (I would skip some stuff 3 minutes in. As an album experience though I can see why it becomes engrained into someone’s identity. Both obscure and deeply open…heh heh

Holy cow this album is dark. In a very cool way.

This hit this morning, guess I'm in the mood for The Cure.

Great dark album.

It's not my favorite of theirs and I still don't get why we haven't heard Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me but I did enjoy it

descobri que esse é o álbum mais cru do the cure porque ou o robert smith fazia ele ou morria… e isso dá pra perceber nas músicas, então considero uma experiência! nunca sei como me sinto sobre o the cure porque começo achando que não to sentindo e no fim chego na conclusão que é essa incerteza que me faz gostar e achar muito bom e isso aconteceu em algumas faixas daqui

My main exposure to The Cure is Disintegration. This is a lot more dark and aggressive. One Hundred Years could be a Killing Joke track. Hints of Disintegration on the slower numbers like the haunting Siamese Twins and Cold, which is my favourite if the bunch.

Jag tycker mycket om The Cure och det här albumet tycker jag om. Jag vet att många tycker det är mörkt och depressivt men visst kan väl den typen av texter också fylla sin funktion? Man måste ju inte alltid lyssna på samma? Man ju försöka bredda sig lite då och då. Cold är hur som helst min favorit. Det är mörkt och suggestivt och jag älskar det. Ibland är det så enkelt.

The Good: Teenagers are going to love this!… and old perverts too! The Bad: Ohhh… this is not that kind of pornography… The Ugly: … I mean, had the lotion all ready… then needed to reach over for a razorblade… Damn Mr Smith, how low can you go? This is indeed not something to listen to while you are trying to enjoy summer vibes… yet, oddly enough, this is when the album is presented to me. I’ve started to appreciate The Cure a lot more these last few years, yet, this album does test the limit a little. Not that it is bad. On the contrary, I’d say it is real good… if you want to feel down. I am currently listening to a ‘70s radio hits playlist… it is making me feel generous, so I guess that The Cure, on this journey, has gotten 4* on all their albums… Congrats Mr Smith! 4*

This is proper dark Cure, not the semi-poppy Cure of the later 80s/early 90s. When I listen to Pornography, I feel like I'm sinking into a magnificent, drug-fueled fever dream of absolute despair. It’s a completely absorbing, oppressive wall of sound that perfectly captures a band on the brink of collapse. Robert Smith’s anguished vocals, discordant guitars, and nihilistic lyrics wash over you, creating an atmosphere so bleak and heavy it almost feels like drowning in tar. It’s not an album you put on to have a good time; it's a raw, emotional descent into the void.

3.5

The older I get, the more I prefer The Cure's poppier and (relatively) sunnier albums, so it's a shame that 'The Head on the Door' specifically isn't among these over a thousand albums. 'Pornography' is obviously a great record too, but I don't often feel like listening to it.

Despite a pretty decent familiarity with later-era Cure, I'd never listened to the early stuff, this album included, and honestly I really enjoyed this (in the sense that one truly can enjoy the level of despair this album conjures up). Dark, brooding, atmospheric, almost prototypically goth. Yes, the production feels somewhat 80s but I have no qualms with that. I think The Figurehead stands out to me as a favorite both musically and lyrically. Will definitely dive more into this earlier era of The Cure on the heels of this one.

As fit as a fiddle, great, hectic, jesus.

I’m no expert on Covid but this is the cure.

The misery guts misery guts. The first time I heard the Cure was late 70s when they were killing Arabs. I drifted away from them then heard their more popy numbers. Then listened to this. Can't say I didn't enjoy, if that's the right word, this but it is a bit of a downer and that's after listening to Coens last album.

(Strong 8/10) A bleak and cold and robotic record, and perhaps The Cure's darkest in terms of pure sound. This album is industrial as hell, and absolutely sounds like the album cover. It took a bit to grow on me but I can clearly tell the influence this record had on many future acts to come is felt in artists like Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails and Ministry. Therefore, this album rules. "I went to the record store and purchased Pornography."

3.5????

Nie mogę oceniać The Cure, a zwłaszcza tej płyty, bo płynącego z niej smutku nie można ocenić, można to tylko przeżyć.

I really like the cure. I didn't as much back in the 1980s but now I do. Maybe it's familiar? Probably not for everyone, but fun for me.

Definitely a depressing album. Really enjoyed the wailing guitars on this one.

Dense, moody, questionable makeup...this album reminds me of my ex. Like that relationship I quite enjoyed it, but can't imagine wanting to give it another spin.

I will listen again. Seemed ok.

The first Cure album I ever heard. I was about 13, the right age, but I didn't appreciate it until years later, after I saw them live on the Disintegration tour and they blew my fucking socks off. Of the Faith/Seventeen Seconds/Pornography trio, I'm not sure which one I like best, but I think it's not this one. Overfamiliarity? Maybe. Nevertheless this is an album that should be given to every baby Goth when they turn 10 years old.

Un álbum tétrico y lugubre, el equivalente sonoro de caminar por el bosque a deshoras sintiendo un escalofrío con cada crujido o graznido. No es mi favorito de The Cure, pero canciones como "A hundred years" y "The hanging garden" son piezas únicas.

Better than I remember. Robert Smith is a little too moody emo, whiney. But i thought the music was good and thumpy. 4 out of 5

A cool sound

nice 👍

i actually liked it a lot

An amazing goth rock album. The Cure at their most atmospheric and spooky. 4.5

This is one of those records that is better if you’re in the proper mood, but if you’re in the proper mood, you’re not doing so good. It’s a great album, if you want to hear some suicidal alcoholic on LSD music. It’s dark in here, buddy. This is going to sound weird, but I think I prefer a happier Robert Smith. This album is great though… somehow. 4.5

Dark and moody just like it should be. Hadn't listened to this one all the way through, quite like it. Good on you, list!

More of the industrial side of the Cure. 4.

<333

First impressions are everything, and this album didn’t disappoint. Great from start to finish. I love the sound and the vibe. It’s dark but instrumentally brilliant and the songs have a certain something that keeps your attention throughout. Big fan of this record.

pornography really is the cure

#185/1001 🇬🇧🖤👄 Dark, bleak, epic, heavy, challenging. This is definitely not an album that a band could make at the start of their career. There was a lot of friction in The Cure by the time they released this record and they were at the point of burnout and it shows.I don't love it but it hits hard. Best tracks:A Strange Day, Cold, The Hanging Garden.

I was never really explicitly aware of The Cure's pivot from gothic to a more new-wave style...apparently this marks that pivot point, so v interesting from a music history standpoint. I was excited to get a Cure album, but it didn't grab me at first. On second pass I'm digging that gothic nature, this will be on rotation come October.

Tämän levyn soundimaailma on huippu. Tykkään tämän kaltaisesta bassottelusta ja sen soundista. Myös Robert Smithin ääni on upeaa kuultavaa.

The early tracks give the feeling of being stuck in limbo, or purgatory. Or maybe the world's slowest phone queue. And it's not changing as we proceed through. There's a weird amount of death being mentioned here too. I'm a little worried about the mindset which might have led to the creation of this. Nothing happy. Nothing relaxed. An dark place. The composers' mental demons are plain as day to me in these tracks. I'm not sure exactly what demon is being referred to here, but it still evokes extremely powerful feelings of struggle and empathy. It certainly did it's job, putting out a feeling, a story of suffering, and 99% hopelessness. The final lines "I must fight this sickness, I must find a cure" offer a hope spot to finish on.

rarely has a record presented its thesis so clearly at its outset - rarer still an album with so alienating a central conceit that is so effective in getting you to agree with it. i think of The Cure as such a lush, layered band, so it always strikes me how horribly minimal this album can get, especially in its middle section, how confrontational and brittle and plain its despair can be. these qualities can be somewhat alienating, but i love Pornography for its confronting grimness, the way it descends through druggy masquerade chaos into something stentorian and cold. on other Cure records, sadness is inviting, even heroic. there's something noble in the gravity of a song like Pictures of You, present in it the great lake of outsized emotion from which all great pop music allows the listener to drink for a few precious minutes. not here. depression sounds as depression is, for the most part, grinding and repetitive and cold. which is not to say that there isn't great pop music here - i can't tell you how often One Hundred Years lodges itself in my head - but it is despite the severity of emotion, rather than because of it. a truly asky record, and imperfect for it, but wonderful nonetheless, and a place of a kind of quiet, awkward, stilted - but hugely necessary - companionship

I'm breathless in my ability to describe how much better the Cure sounds as I get older -- I really think they are one of the best rock bands ever. I hadn't listened to this album in a long time, and I remember being so-so about it when I heard it ~20 years ago. Listening to it again, I feel I now understand it better. I'm looking forward to relistening to this a ton.

Депрешн из май профешн. Буквально с первой ноты хочется лечь и умирать. Каеф

A good album, "the hanging garden" it's my personal favorite. The cure, an amazing band

TBD

Mulla on ollu päällä The Cureen tutustuminen nyt noin vuoden ja monien muiden levyjen tavoin myös tää piti kuunnella kolmesti ennen ku osaa sanoa oikein mitään. Ja se mitä osaan nyt sanoa on että tykkäsin tästä(????? :DDD). Annetaan nyt neljä tähteä siitä hyvästä.

Pornography has a kind of eery opening that is a little bit unsetteling and reminds me kind of the backrooms movie with its vibe. Could be because I watched it a few days ago and still have that eery Feeling. He Sound is Kind of disturbing but the buildup of the Song is nice! The other Song i've listened too was also very nice!

Vilken vibe! Oskönt på ett skönt sätt

Härligt olycksbådande rakt igenom.

Muy bueno. The Cure es una banda que siempre me gusta cuando les escucho algo, pero a la que curiosamente no le he entrado como creo que debería. Tendré que mejorar eso pronto. Mientras tanto, Pornography: discazo.

I quite liked it it fit the vibe of the day very well

Really interesting al my. Super cold and dark and ominous atmosphere. I loved the punchy drums and the basslines, but the synth and guitar work is amazing as well. Not sure how often I will return to this, but I’m glad I listened to this. Favourite songs: One Hundred Years, Cold

It’s The Cure…👍

un instrumental rudo y limpio a la vez. Agradable como concepto de escucha

Listened March 2024. One of the bleakest albums I can remember listening to. The sheer force of conviction and overwhelming sense of dread and despair carries this one.

De jaren '80 worden niet verbloemd. Toch weet de Cure er een eigen sfeer mee te creëren. Stiekem vindt ik die jaren '80 drums hier wel fijn. Met de zang heb ik nog steeds wel moeite, ondanks dat het past bij de sfeer en het totaalplaatje. Ik noemde Hybrid al als referentie bij Disintegration. Zo'n nummer als The Hanging Garden gaat al best die richting op. Bij Seventeen seconds viel me dat nog niet zo op. Dit album hangt echt wat tussen die twee albums in. Leuk om de ontwikkeling van de band te horen. 3,5 ster.

De plaat begint gelijk lekker met het hoogtepunt, het gejaagde One Hundred Years. Gillend gitaarriffje, beukende drums, de licht paniekerige zang van Robert Smith. Verder hoor je toch overduidelijk dat het 80s is, met zelfs vrij veel new wave invloeden wel. De gitaar en de drums met net iets teveel galm. Zoals ik al wel eens heb geschreven, vind ik Disintegration een van de albums die ik zou meenemen naar een onbewoond eiland. Pornography heeft hetzelfde donkere gothische sfeertje, maar is het voor mij net niet. Alsof de beatjes, de pulserende bass en de catchy riffjes op Disintegration net wat beter op hun plaats vallen. Misschien is het daar allemaal net iets gelikter, of begint het al meer 90s sound te krijgen en minder de 80s sound die Pornography nog heeft. En dat ik dat dus net iets beter waardeer. Blijft staan, dat dit wel de sound is die je van The Cure het liefste hebt. Die vrolijke nummers als Friday Im in Love zijn wel grappig, maar die deprimerende gothic sound hoor ik toch het liefste. Disintegration is 5 sterren, dit album krijgt van mij 4 duimpjes.

Banger!

Me pregunto cuánto de los puntajes que pongo tienen que ver con la afinidad emocional preexistente con la banda y cuánto es objetivo (:

Album #195 The Cure: Pornography The Cure at their absolute bleakest. Normally, Robert Smith and co. excel at combining a cheerful pop structure, with gloomy gothic aesthetics, and the result is music accessible enough that the parents won’t be afraid and burn it, but dark enough that the child can still sulk to it. As someone who enjoys goth and post-punk music, The Cure are really the gold standard; they’ve been the pinnacle of the genre for over forty years now, and it seems like they still have it. Now, if they continued producing albums like Pornography, rather than making ‘Wish’ or ‘Head on the Door’, I doubt that they would have ever found so much mainstream success. Not to say this album is bad, the opposite actually, it is quite great, but it certainly is a lot less apparent to the listener than “Just Like Heaven”. There are no catchy choruses or danceable melodies to save you here; you are left alone in a cold, damp room with nothing to grasp onto. The sinister opening riff of One Hundred Years is one of The Cure’s finest moments, immediately announcing a statement of intent that in this album, boys will cry. I wouldn’t disparage anyone for not thinking this album is anything special, as it certainly reveals itself more upon further listening. And whether or not I would rank this amongst my favourite Cure albums really depends on how depressed I am when listening to it. But Pornography proved a few things for The Cure: one that they were, in fact, an incredibly talented band, and two that they were no posers. Best Songs: One Hundred Years, The Hanging Garden, Cold Worst Song: A Short-Term Effect Score out of 10: 8.5

The Cure—to use a comparison that may or may not work—are the musical equivalent of cilantro. Not everyone likes The Cure, and some people probably think they taste like soap (which, to be fair, is the actual complaint about cilantro). But for those who do get it, there’s something undeniable about Robert Smith’s drawling vocals, the churning undercurrent of guitar and bass, the hypnotic pulse of the drums, and the weirdly gothic imagery that hangs over everything they do. Apparently, I’m one of those people. The funny thing is, I didn’t spend my teenage years dressed in black and moping around in a cloud of existential dread. Outside of a handful of radio hits, I didn’t really know much about The Cure until much later in life. This was my first time listening to Pornography front to back, and while it’s not my favorite of theirs, it scratches those dark, atmospheric itches you didn’t even realize you had until after pressing play. It’s perfectly gloomy in the best possible way—bonus points if you listen to it on a rainy or overcast day.

Cold e pornography mi sono particolarmente piaciute, non so se ritenerlo un album brillante ma me lo sono goduto

A more evened out David Byrne? I don't know for sure, but I suspect this is a vocal doppelgänger. The album was good. I think I'm predisposed to melancholy, so I generally vibed with tone of the album. There were a few moments that threatened to unmoor the stone and for that I'm thankful, I appreciate when music makes me feel something.

Моё!

What a marvellous manic maelstrom of an album. It’s raw, it’s dark, it’s doom music without the heavy metal. Like a cut that hurts to itch but you can’t resist it. A slightly different mode to what I am used to from The Cure but it’s great, if at times difficult.

Usual haunting anxiety I have come to expect from them.  The shrill of the high pitch guitar or the pained drone of the vocals. Even the smack of the drum is sharper than the average and fuels the non-repenting theme of descending into darkness.  I just love the grating reverb they have and the lingering nature of most of the sound. The unrelenting dark I guess is a minor downside as the pace and flavor of the music never really changes so not as varied as some albums of this kind potentially.  Still enjoy it alot!

I really enjoyed this early Cure record. It has all the elements of the Cure that made their later records great, but perhaps in a more naïve, less refined state. It has that 80's beat with the swirling mushy guitars that make you feel like you are floating in a sensory deprivation chamber having a heroine flashback. Robert Smith has such a unique voice that treads the line of wingey teenager without going so far as to be annoying. Early album I'd not listened too before from a great band.

It's fine good Cure. I prefer later Cure offerings though

Quality.

Whilst hearing some of The Cure’s songs, i have never listened to a full album and i really enjoyed this one.

Oof well this one was fucking heavy. A lot of the reviews when this came out were truly odious. The dense soundscape here with the lyrics providing less literal meaning and more texture to the vibe the songs are going for works really well. It's not a perfect album by any means, I really can't argue with people calling it repetitive. The sheer misanthropy and edge can be too much for me at times. Enjoyed isn't the word but... I was certainly engrossed throughout this album. I found it pretty compelling and form that it gets a 4.

Las canciones me gustaron mucho, es relajante y hasta algo melancólico?? :0

depression erotic incel energy

Curiously missing from my Cure knowledge. I didn't note any breakouts but it was The Cure and it was lovely and melancholic and atmospheric all the same.

Other than the distinctive voice of Robert Smith you’d hardly recognise this as The Cure. Incredible drumming!

Not my favorite cure but still great

This album could be on any time and I wouldn't mind. It also starts to fade in to the background after a few tracks.

Definitivamente hay algo ahí, y hay que descubrir qué. Nota: 4.0

I knew I would like it because my dad likes it and yes indeed, I liked it. It didn't blow my mind, but it's definitely a good album, I never got bored either.

I like The Cure already

Never listened to this album, but The Cure are always good.

I don't know what it says about me that I liked this a bit more than Disintegration. Robert Smith has spoken about how Pornography was made at a time in his life when he was extremely depressed and difficult to work with. from the opening line, "It doesn't matter if we all die," the darkness immediately sets in. it certainly helps that the Cure create such a stirring, reverberant chasm behind Smith's words, chock-full of icy synths and electric guitars covered in layers of effects pedals. you better believe that snare reverb is gated! we're leaving the world of snappy, hooky post-punk further and further behind. other dark, depressing albums often lace the sadness with a dash of levity, whether it be humor or a silver lining; the Cure dispense with any notion of that across all 8 songs here. I think part of my preference for this over Disintegration is the relatively concise way in which it delivers this morose message. Disintegration reaches more for stadium-sized grandiosity and over an hour of runtime, whereas Pornography suffocates you for less than 45 minutes. you get a little extra time to pick yourself up afterwards. decent 8/10.

It's as dark and dreary as one might imagine a goth album to be. It's downright depressing at points, but that is the point. It's what Robert Smith was going through. I definitely have to be in a mood to really envelop myself in what this feels like. I don't think I have ever felt this bad ever in my life, so I'll never really "get" it in that regard, but it is a good rainy afternoon album.

I let it run on the background while working I’ll listen to is as an album when I need to focus, it’s good

me gustó mucho pero se me hizo bastante raro en algunas partes

I really am liking the guitar on the first song, the vocals are cool, sounds a bit diff from the cure's normal stuff but I still am enjoying this sound.

Album

all the songs kinda sound the same but I like them - more of a low 4

2 for 2 on the soph hoodies. Not a cure album I was super familiar with, but it is excellent. Might be the gloomiest album Ive heard - feels like the last spastic moans of a man about to take himself out of the game. As truly Gothic as it gets.

Hell yeah… The Cure is scary… yes

i had listened to this many years ago and enjoyed it but never came back to it (with the exception of one hundred years) because i preferred disintegration. i'm glad i got the chance to relisten, especially today, because the weather was so perfect for it. it's a really overwhelming album; the self-hatred is so suffocating, i understand why xiu xiu covered one hundred years - "creeping up the stairs in the dark, waiting for the death blow..." 'a short term effect' is definitely the weak point here for me but the rest is excellent. 4-4.5 for me

sure. i mean sure. not a single jazz record but sure. what i'm gathering is that by 1985 (circa head on the door + pre the other albums i've listened to) the cure had Basically completed the process of degothing and re-alting. which sucks. cause i love a lil bit of goth rock. a LITTLE BIT. most bands know no moderation. robert smith and co. got it like that though. thinking of that one old tumblr post about emo vs goth vs punk. there really is a perverse beauty in it all. tl;dr the best goth rock has more shoegaze in it than people would like to admit. 3.8-4.2. first two songs are peak. the line between meandering and aesthetic waterboarding (positive) for the rest is. there. cold (arp solina mentioned pt 2) goes full on into enhanced interrogation techniques. ts would've done numbers (if my childhood friends weren't so locked into the screamo/metalcore teenage rebellion soundtrack) for middle school me. don't blame them at all. 2014 kellin quinn Mogs 1982 robert smith.

Solid album

The Cure is a unique band. In a way they are "alternative" like college radio and in a way they are on the edges of experimental pop. I will not read about or place them in a genre because I honestly have always felt they stand alone in style. I happen to like their style, and am thus, a fan. Once upon a time I saw them live and it was pretty great. This particular album as a whole is not my favorite but it is still trademark Cure so sure. I would choose a different album as an introduction but if you already know of them, than you will understand my rating. I feel like THIS album among others is a three, but overall, I feel I am also rating "The Cure" as a band, thus I will shoot this up a star. Please be advised to listen to other albums before judging solely on this one.

Dark AF. New wave start. A quilombo at the end

The culmination of their initial four album 'gloom' phase when very cool people liked them. They tended to release singles separately to albums and the fact that ' a hundred years', 'the hanging garden', 'siamese twins' and 'a strange day' are now fan favourites is evidence of how well the album has weathered. The band was in a drug fuelled mess at the time and Robert was severely depressed - no surprise there! Nice to hear synths and a nice expanse to the atmosphere in the production, with a new wave drum sound. After this came 'love cats' and the start of the hits phase. Smith was also moonlighting with Siouxie and the Banshees on guitar as well.

Dope

My gripe with the Cure has never been the music, it’s actually just recently that it’s become Robert Smith. The dude still wears lipstick and he now looks like an old lady wearing lipstick with the lipstick slightly smeared in the wrinkles around his mouth. Which, gives it that “look at me, I put my makeup on in the dark” look. The songs sound the same but are different. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s not a problem just don’t expect to be blown away

Denso, heavy, con un montón de aristas, sin pulir... Me ha flipado.

Not my favorite Cure album, but an extremely good one. Rocked harder than I expected. Could definitely see this one as an influence on industrial music.

classic cure, true essence of boyhood in this album. upon a re listen im sure the lyrics will reveal themselves better. shoegazey, timeless, a greatly grungy and dirty album made for walking about

Not what I expected based on the other albums. But equally enjoyable.

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One of the best the cure albums, I like the vibe

Loved this album. It is dark, moody and timeless. Unmistakably The Cure. It reminded of Disintegration, released at the other end of the eighties.

One of those bands that is instantly recognizable for their unique sound. There's nothing like Robert Smith and the Cure.

It's definitely grown on me over the years, but I still prefer their following era Fav tracks: A Short Term Effect, One Hundred Years

underrated the cure album imo🏋️‍♀️

4/5

This is not olivia rodrigo’s the cure! I would say I know a fair amount of their song but none of the names from this album were familiar so I was intrigued what it would sound like. I loved the intense energy on this, especially in The Hanging Garden and The Figurehead (and A Strange Day). it was so menacing but also catchy man I loved the drums. every song starting just made me think YES give me more of that Lol Tolhurst. I’m sure there’s more of their albums to come but this actually really encouraged me to dig deeper before then As an aside, I asked my dad what he thought of this album because he’s always been into the cure and some of their more obscure stuff and he asked me if I knew Just Like Heaven and I was very offended.

Not my favourite Cure album but it’s a fantastic and bleak look at depression and anxiety. It’s harsh and difficult to listen to at times but that’s part of its charm.

Good

A foundational Cure album. This is one for those who liked the Cure BEFORE they heard "Just Like Heaven." Robert Smith has always been a great songwriter, and the moody atmospherics of this album raise the game.

Don't think I know any of these songs, more Joy Division than what I've heard. Dislike the tinny 80s drum sounds, liked it less as it went on, but atmospheric dense 80s rock. 3.5 rounded up Heard before? No Owned: No: 67/270 (24%) Will I get: No

Not sure why I never got into them even young. Nice dark album.

Solid album

Not as many hits but overall it’s good Think if I’m giving this a 4 I’m breaking the rules and going back and changing disintegration to a 4 too. Sue me I like the cure now

I liked it, not sorrow like Desintegration, but good and dark.

Those four stars are a bit of a stretch for me. I really like this album, but when I mean that, I mean two, or maybe three songs: One Hundred Years, The Figurehead and Pornography. And Disintegration is just so much better in every way, that this one feels feels a little bit inferior.

1001 albums to hear before you get emo goth and make a satanic ritual 73# Been wanting to listen to this for a while, I'm glad I'll have to do it now. Love the cure, but besides of Songs of a lost world, Disintegration and some hits they have (well that's quite a start actually), i never listened to another album of them much. I guess the Songs of lost world is more of an experimentation and more spacious than what this will be. Ok, wow this was really the sound of their Songs of lost world but more despair to it, not just a trip to space, i was not expecting that. Spacious guitars that make you levitate. Repetitive long songs, almost drone. This is so depressing and it feels like it, but i find myself just happy for listening. I guess i feel happy with the despair of another man, whoops.

Exactly what I expected from The Cure before I started this project. Dark, gloomy songs from front to back, but with some great rhythm and guitar work. I also do enjoy Smith’s vocals. Not as good as Disintegration.

Я в цілом disentegration фанбой і похмура атмосфера pornography ніколи мене сильно не чіпляла. Але зараз переслухав цей альбом і якось прям сподобалось набагато сильніше ніж раніше.

Weaponized gloom, industrial-strength sulking, and enough atmospheric despair to fog the windows. Yet Robert Smith still has that magical voice that can transport me straight back to teenage bedrooms, posters, journals, and feelings nobody understood. Miserable in theory, weirdly comforting in practice.

Oh, the last album from the Cure already?? We haven't even hit 200 albums yet... That aside, I'm loving the Cure more and more because they do such a great job creating and maintaining the atmosphere for their albums. Case in point, the first song sets the stage for a morose vibe. And overall, this record sounds like Seventeen Seconds but with more emphasis on the reverberated drums.

A solid 4 - I love their sound

The Cure maintain a gothic, foreboding vibe for the full length of the album. There isn’t even a shard of light. It is an affecting, daunting listen which feels like the natural end point of a form of exploration the band started with the equally patient Seventeen Seconds. Pornography ups the levels of atmosphere though with a greater commitment to keeping the sound pent up, never letting any air in. Its consistency is in complete opposition to the debut and the poppier more single friendly eras to come. It is potentially The Cure at their most aesthetically distinctive.

Pornography is some kind of 4, it lacks the melody of their later gothic masterpiece Disintegration and it doubles down on the darkness hinted at in their early stuff - i think it’s a great record but find it a little stifling and suffocating to truly love it

Yep, this was about as good as it got in 1982. Still has the 80s production glaze, but at least there is some depth and emotional space in the songs. It still sounds at home in the indie pantheon of the modern era. Very cool album from a desolate period of music.

Classudo

I’m a fan of this sound. The guitar solos throughout the album are also keeping me going. Won’t be listening through the entire album again, but this was nice to listen to.

Love The Cure, but not their top work. Still a solid 4. “Pornography” feels less like an album and more like a storm‑lit chapel where despair learns to sing. It moves with the gravity of a ritual, each track a candle guttering in a room thick with incense and sleepless thoughts. The drums don’t simply strike—they throb, like a pulse you’re suddenly aware of in your throat. The guitars smear across the mix like bruised watercolors, and Robert Smith’s voice drifts through it all like a ghost trying to remember its own name. There’s a strange, terrible beauty here: the kind that early ’80s gloomy new wave chased but rarely caught. The Cure didn’t just capture it—they bottled the fog, carved the ache into stone, and left it humming with a kind of sacred dread. “Pornography” is the sound of shadows learning to speak, and the echo they leave behind is still cold to the touch.

It's good. It's not Disintegration.

Dreamy and so well crafted!

es un si para mi

nice, but macabre

The Cure’s Pornography doesn’t just sound dark ... it feels like summer, but not the kind of summer people romanticise. It’s the heavy version: airless, slow, and quietly suffocating. The kind of summer where you return somewhere familiar and it no longer fits the same way, where the days stretch too long and everything feels slightly off. There’s a thickness to the album’s sound. the pounding, repetitive drums and dense production don’t just create gloom, they create pressure. It’s not cold isolation, but heat that lingers, making everything feel sticky, tired, and inescapable. Instead of hiding in shadows, the unease sits fully exposed, like something you can’t avoid under a bright, unrelenting sky. In that way it kinda feels like Pornography becomes something like “sunny spooky”: not darkness creeping in, but light revealing too much. It captures a very specific feeling to me, of being back home in the summer, a little older, a little disconnected, and not entirely sure why everything feels so heavy. It’s not dramatic despair, but a quieter kind of emptiness, one that hangs in the heat and refuses to move.

Dark and atmospheric. Seems to run out of steam through the back half, but great energy on side A.

Är 100 % gothare känner jag. Mycket härlig dissonans i riffen rakt igenom. Ibland känns det som att Robert Smiths otroliga röst är det enda som skiljer det från black metal. Mellanspelet i the figurehead hade lika gärna kunnat vara dissection eller nåt.

äntligen lite emo

I wanna be Robert Smith

Heard Before? Yup. Notes: - like most Cure albums, it takes one idea and runs it into the ground. - the bass, drum and synth parts are shockingly repetitive. this can drag songs pointlessly or act to drive them while highlighting the vocals and guitar. - i really enjoy the dissonant, off-time guitar parts, especially on "Short Term Effect". - production uses the reverby-yet-claustrophobic 80s sound to maximal effect. Verdict: Having not been a tortured teen for many years, this rarely suits my mood, but it certainly nails that sort of moaning desperation. Listen Again: Eventually I'll get around to it.

3eme album de The Cure proposé par le générateur. Cet album contient 2 de mes morceaux préférés du groupe : - 'One hundred year' +++ - 'The hanging garden' +++ que j'avais découvert dans 'Concert: The Cure Live' de 1984. J'aime beaucoup la basse+batterie sur cet album. Et j'ai apprécié les originalités harmoniques surprenantes ('The Figurehead'++) ainsi que l'atmosphère sombre et unique de cet album. Il n'est pas loin d'obtenir la note maxi, mais certains morceaux sont un peu plus faibles ('A Short Term Effect' par exemple). Le live de 1984 reste mon préféré du groupe. => 4.5/5

9/10 – Great

Very good album. Oppressive. Dark. Almost painful at times. I really liked "One Hundred Years", "The Figurehead", and "A Strange Day".

4/5. I’ve gotten this album as a very coincidental time, since as a personal project I’ve been listening through the Cure’s entire discography recently. And Pornography sees them when they reached their first peak in my opinion. This album is the culmination of the dark, gothic sound they were building with on albums like “17 seconds” or “Faith.” The opener “One Hundred Years” immediately sets the dark tone of this album, and it proceeds to fully envelop you for the rest of the records 43 minute runtime. My favorite song though might actually be the slow-burner in the middle “Siamese Twins.”

whaaat mais c'est super connu The Cure ? jamais entendu parlé, genre personne ne dit : "j'écoute the cure et toi?" bref. Sinon l'album m'a fait complétement arrêté le porno, je suis sobre depuis 1h quand même ! ça mérite un 4 non ?

classic cure 10/10

I was not a big fan of The Cure back in the 80s, so ai was surprised I enjoyed this album as much as I did. It felt fresh and energetic. I didn’t know any of the songs but I liked pretty much all of them.

I’m kinda confused how this beat out some of the other cure albums but I am a pornography enjoyer lol

The Cure are so much fun to listen to.

Long songs, but decent

4/5

8 - GOOD

Listens: 3 or 4 Standout Tracks: The Hanging Garden, Siamese Twins Third Cure album on the List. I really didn't get Seventeen Seconds, like, at all. Maybe it was just too new and foreign to me at the time. I fell in love with Disintegration, eventually, but not immediately. I think I latched onto the idea that there were a lot of hallucinogenics involved in it's production (apparently). Pornography falls somewhere in-between. It's moody, its brooding and dark. It's growing on me. I originally gave Disintegration a 4, which I think at this point needs to be bumped up to a 5, which would probably make this a 3.5 or 4.

Brilliant brilliant band and Robert Smith is a genius. This one is light on his but the sound and the mood are great

Nostalgia, sweet nostalgia. I enjoyed the Cure’s hits but never really explored their music so this was all fresh ground for me. Stands up pretty well.

grows on you

el sonido me encanta jajaja, no es nada revolucionario o que me cambie la vida y si pudiera realmente le pondría como 3.8, pero. El sonido de the figurehead es cautivante y ese bajooo ughh, su voz también es muy agardable.

Thoughts before listening: The Cure's dark, sexy album is how I've always heard this described. I'm not sure I've ever really listened to this despite being a big fan of their other work. It's the Cure so I'm sure I'll love it. Review: So is this Robert Smith's answer to industrial rock or something? Looks like this came out in 1982 so perhaps it's more accurate to acknowledge the influence it had on those later bands while embracing the darker sides post-punk ala Joy Division. I know the band is considered goth rock, but they have always balanced the dark, brooding songs with bright pop tracks. This album basically hits on a dense, metallic crunch out the gate with "One Hundred Years" and never lets up. I really like it although I am missing the hit. I think I prefer the other albums a bit, but this gets 4-stars.

80s new wave/gothic vibe. Definitely too sad of music to casually listen to lol, but the if one song came up on a coffee shop I’d probably vibe

Nog jiet geluisyerd

Some greats on this.

I liked it a lot. Raw cure sounds. Big drums and lots of emotion in his voice.

A part of the eleven year run of epic Cure albums An atmospheric wall of sound, while the the most uplifting collection in the Cure archive, its still a fascinating creation that hold up in 2026

Denso e intenso

Overall: 8/10 This is such a relaxing album. It helped me chill out on a very stressful morning and I love it for that. It doesn't quite reach the heights of Disintegration but it gets pretty close. I could see myself napping to this (that's a huge compliment). Fav Song: The Hanging Garden

Pretty cool noise. I think I'd enjoy more if I was having an existential crisis, I'll have to remember to put it on next time

Very dark maar ook very nice

7/10

9/10

Yea this ones pretty good. Very depressing album but yea pretty good. My fav tracks gotta be the figurehead. 7.4/10

Pretty good, not sure where this slates in the Cure's discography. But it was consistent and enjoyable.

This one is truly a masterpiece in giving the mood. Not the good one. Not the sunny happy one. Dark, gloomy, morose one. Not the best album by The Cure, not even the second or third in my opinion, but what it surely has is consistency and coherence. This one will surely make you start questioning your own existence and the world in general.

It doesn’t matter if we all die!

I don't know that I can get around the strange vocal inflection, but the music is pretty interesting. I like the drums. 3.8.

Sounds a lot like The Cure, that's for sure.

Apt soundtrack for a dreary Thursday morning commute. Haven't listened to a Cure album start to finish previously, but this was wonderfully moody and visceral.

A great album that changed The Cure’s direction. I have been a huge since day and see them probably more times than any band.

Yeah The Cure is good. This is a good album by The Cure.

increíble, teatral, excelente