The Cure’s Disintegration is a monumental record, the point where Robert Smith took the band’s darkest instincts and stretched them into something vast, romantic and completely immersive. Released in 1989, their eighth studio album wraps heartbreak, isolation and longing in huge washes of guitar, shimmering keyboards and melodies that seem to hang in the air long after they’ve finished.
Plainsong opens the album like weather rolling in, immediately establishing the scale of what follows. Pictures Of You is devastatingly beautiful, Lovesong turns absolute devotion into one of The Cure’s most direct pop songs, while Lullaby and Fascination Street bring menace and movement to the gloom. Then come the enormous emotional centrepieces: Prayers For Rain, The Same Deep Water As You and the title track, where Smith seems to disappear completely into the world he has created.
Produced by Robert Smith and David M. Allen, Disintegration is dense without becoming cluttered, bleak without losing its beauty and grand without ever feeling hollow. The remastered double-vinyl edition restores the complete 12-song album, including Last Dance and Homesick, which were omitted from the original 1989 LP because of vinyl running-time limitations.
TRACKS:
Side A
Plainsong
Pictures Of You
Closedown
Side B
Lovesong
Last Dance
Lullaby
Fascination Street
Side C
Prayers For Rain
The Same Deep Water As You
Side D
Disintegration
Homesick
Untitled
){kind=link}