Why is there no thread for The Cure's Disintegration?

I remember when I first heard this album, it was like nothing I'd ever heard before. Very dark, very pretty. My favorite Cure album, definitely in my top 5 all-time.

"Pictures of You" is the weak link and it's still great.

I remember telling a friend when it came out that the reason I kept listening to it was it was the only thing that fit my mood right then. A little while later he said he felt the same way about it.

I first heard it in like 2003 I think. It was when I was really starting to delve deep into dark '80s music and I was hoping that I'd find more music that has the je ne sais quoi that this album has.

Absolutely! Magnifique!

Anyway perhaps this isn't the right thread to mention it, but this quiet Black Sabbath comp that Matt H. made is freaking fantastic. I think it goes right along with Cure's Disintegration, actually.

Although I suppose I would concede that you might have to be in a certain mood for it.
-- Bimble, Sunday, October 28, 2007 2:28 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

You don't have to be in a certain mood. Disintegration is its own mood.

definitely in my top 5 all-time.
-- Curt1s Stephens, Sunday, October 28, 2007 3:04 PM (50 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

not intending to derail...but, Curt1s, what else?

I prefer "dark" The Cure with drum machines and analog synths. That is, 1980-82. "Disintegration", for me, is way overrated while the best of their later material is the more poppy stuff on albums such as "Head On The Door", Japanese Whispers" and even "Wild Mood Swings".

This has been a favorite of mine for quite a while. its one of those albums you can go back to again and again, it just has that endless quality to it.
"Just like Heaven" is their best song, but this is by far their best album.

what an albums! the opening chords of plainsong evoke some weird shit in me.

yeah the mid-'80s drum machined singles/Japanese Whispers era is also great. "Lament," "Just One Kiss," etc. are masterpieces.

and stephen: the only other ones I can think of at the moment are Strange Times by the Chameleons and Pink Moon by Nick Drake. The rest is kind of up in the air (Louder Than Bombs probably wouldn't count since it's a comp)

hey, there's nothing to say a compilation can't be a favorite!

Strange Times, great choice! i know it'd make the cut for my top 20-25, and i guess out of 1000+ albums owned (and who knows how many thousands more heard), that's saying something good.

Why is there no cure for the thread's disintegration?

A: I keep posting.

Heard of these guys.

my problem with this album is simple: "plainsong" is so perfect that the rest of it pales.

that's not to say i don't like it. i do. a lot. i just wish there was another moment on there that came close.

"Plainsong" is miles above almost anything recorded ever.

back to the album:

I saw the Cure on tour in 2004, Curiosa of course, and while the set was quite abbreviated (i.e. 2 instead of 3 hours), i remember in Dallas hearing at least five (maybe six) Disintegration songs, which was utterly fantastic for me at the time. still love this album, and really looking forward to the 2008 Cure shows.

Dallas TX setlist (from A Chain of Flowers), with Disintegration songs bolded:

Lost, Plainsong, Labyrinth, Fascination Street, Before Three, From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, The End of the World, Anniversary, Lovesong, Inbetween Days, Just Like Heaven, Pictures of You, alt.end, A Strange Day, Disintegration, One Hundred Years, The Promise

Encore 1: M, Play For Today, A Forest

Encore 2: 10:15 Saturday Night, Boys Don't Cry.

i want to hear plainsong on the largest soundsystem ever

followed by running up that hill

hahaha cutty

Just had to slip in a Kate Bush mention, whoops! Hahaha. ;)

You know, I had a horrible experience where I played Disintegration (admittedly) on a crappy boombox when we were drywalling and repainting our living room, and a friend came by to lend a hand and part way through "Plainsong" she actually turned it off and said "now can we play something we can actually listen to?" I was gobsmacked and weirdly saddened by this episode.... so much so that this is the first time I've mentioned it to anyone and it must have happened, oh, three years ago or so!

(Needless to say, at the time, I said "no, you can't do that, you really fucking can't" and hit play again.)

So, um, anyway, I'm very glad to see I'm not weird and alone in my "Plainsong" love, after all.

god, I hope they play Plainsong first on this tour. I've never seen them live.

Some tremendous momments, indeed, but i wouldn't place it even in their top five.

So, um, anyway, I'm very glad to see I'm not weird and alone in my "Plainsong" love, after all.

Oh god no you're not alone. Plainsong, as mentioned upthread, is far and away the best part of this album, and comes to mind immediately when I think of pretty much perfect intros to albums.

I think there's a thread somewhere where people "stripped an album down to its essence", eliminating songs until the most important or most vital track remains that expresses the album's mood or theme or whatever. A dubious activity for the most part, but it made sense when people stripped everything off Disintegration except Plainsong.

"Plainsong" is great, as are "Pictures Of You" and "Lullaby" too. And "Untitled". And I am even finally starting to like "Lullaby" a bit. But I still feel like the entire album doesn't quite hold up. The "huge" sound doesn't fit with this kind of music.

i still put this on on rainy days when I've got nothing to do except smoke and drink red wine and listen to this, and i 'play it lou' as per the instructions.

lou, loud, whatever!

otm. that's when i want it.

this is the best coming down album ever.

I'm not sure I'd want to listen to Lullaby when coming down.

This was the first album I ever bought the day it came out, rushing from school to get a train to town before the shops shut.

I replaced that long-lost cassette with a nice vinyl copy (which I got for £4, along with Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me at the same price) just the other day, and it's great coming back to it. It sounds much better, and much grander than it did.

I partly agree with Geir, though. Something about those big drums doesn't sound quite right.

The sequencing of this albuum from "Prayers For Rain" onwards is one of the most perfect orderings of songs ever put together by a band.

This album alone really shaped my whole musical (and to a very large extent non-musical) world when it came out and I was 13. A friend had lent me a huge batch of tapes he got from Columbia House and after checking out the Midnight Oils, the Simple Minds and the Eurythmics, I finally put on that one tape. I knew straight from the opening synths of Plainsong that things would never really be the same for me. Utterly awesome.

When exactly did it come out? In my memory, I'm younger than the release date says. Must have been early in '89.

Spring '89. I remember getting a copy of it from a friend during track practice and playing it on a crappy crappy tape deck that was so bad I couldn't hear the chimes at the beginning of "Plainsong".

The live version of Fascination Street on what I now learn is called Entreat (I spent several pre-Internet years wondering what this was called) is absolutely fantastic, as I remember, although I haven't heard it in ... 16 years - Jesus.

Entreat is fucking amazing. That version of "Prayers For Rain"...!

otm

god, "entreat"! i'd forgotten about the very existence of that. another thing i must have on a C90 somewhere :/

The version of "Disintegration" on Entreat may be my single favorite Cure song (glad I don't actually have to pick). The tempo is picked up a bit and Robert sounds so desperate. It's lovely.

i also remember being really excited for "Mixed Up", (which came out within a year of Disintegration, I think) - but then being really disappointed by almost all the remixes, especially the ones from Disintegration... but this was mostly made up for by the awesomeness of "Harold and Joe" - the b-side from the "Mixed Up" 12".

I forgot about "Harold and Joe" – it's got that weird bass guitar burp/hiccup hook.

matt2 otm. the version of "disintegration" entreat is vicious! robert gasping for air and shit!

I quite like the electric version of Plainsong featured on the Festival 2005 dvd. Smith's scraped bass strings sound gigantic.

ooh. i've not heard that ...

Probably shocking for most Cure fans, but I love it.
The whole dvd is quite good, in my opinion - first time in years they seemed genuinely intrested in shaking a bit their formula.

interested, even.

I so need to get that Festival DVD.

Mixed Up pissed me off because I had three of the four Disintegration singles already, so I already had those remixes (and I hated the "Lullaby" remix). The dubby "Pictures of You" remix was (and is) completely brilliant, though.

The sequencing of this album from "Prayers For Rain" onwards is one of the most perfect orderings of songs ever put together by a band.
-- HI DERE, Monday, October 29, 2007 9:54 AM (52 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

hay i fixed that for you okay? ^^^

I'm not a big fan of "Closedown".

Fool!

You are not the first person to say this.

I'm not a big fan of "Plainsong" though.

uh

"Plainsong" has never worked live for me. I always think it always sounds thin.

i'd like to hear it live, but can imagine that yes, it could be disappointing.

baaderonixx: wow! really? hey ho. horses, courses etc.

Well I don't dislike it but I've always seen it more as a dirgy intro that might be a bit too pompous for its own good (which is maybe the one thing you could fault the album for).

I'm kinda liking this sludgy metal version though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93vIIKvnFOc

Anyone knows when the next batch of remasters will be released?
(Relevant in this thread as "Disintegration" will obviously be among them)

Why is there no disintegration for The Cure's thread?

"Closedown" is awesome!!

"Closedown" is half-baked.

I was about to protest until I checked my iTunes and found that I'd ripped the whole album except "Closedown"! Hmmm...

your mom is half-baked.

a album that changed everything about me.

not the best album ever made but is my personal number one album of all time.

BTW, that Stone Roses album really did more overall but comes up short at number two.

I've never actually heard Entreat, though the sleeve looks familiar. I will certainly seek it out, it seems like a great idea to hear live versions of these songs.

I've never seen the Cure live, either.

My mom is half-baked which makes her great, hahah, come on.

yeah, this is the best thing they put out alright

the captivating and altogether enchanting mystique pervading this record lends tracks like 'last dance' and 'prayers for rain' a true dreamlike and ethereal quality. each track is approached with more lyrical sincerity and subtlety than smith had been able to muster before or since. fantastically engaging moody pieces and unforgettable singles. perfect mix and wash of instruments.

and i should mention that the last two minutes or so of the title track is pure bliss

Yeah, lyrically, this is really Smith's finest hour.

Smith's finest lyrical hour = Pornography, particularly "A Strange Day", "The Figurehead" and "Siamese Twins".

The Cure have lots and lots of peaks throughout their career. They've done so many things perfectly; Faith is the perfect Faith, "Just Like Heaven" is the perfect "Just Like Heaven," etc. This album is perfect in a certain dark, romantic, cinematic way, and I think that makes it tower over nearly everything else anyone -- including this band -- has ever done.

It's not always my favorite song on the album, but sometimes the sheer awesomeness of "Fascination Street" will leave me slackjawed.

HI DERE 100% OTM a couple of posts up. ESPECIALLY THE FUCKING FIGUREHEAD.

i can lose myself in chinese art and american girls

oh, that's just amazing ;)

no, seriously i love pornography and its lyrical premise. it's just that i wish it didn't quite sound the way it does - very devoid of warmth. which of course was the intention, so how can i be critical? also, 'a strange day' is really magic, genuinely something special. top 5 material, and that's saying something enormous when you're talking the cure's catalogue of songs

Porno is fantastic and Siamese Twins is probably my fave Cure song ever, but I still think that lyrically 'Disintegration' owns it completely. Maybe I'm just more interested these days in mid-life nostalgic ramblings than fits of narcotic fury.

This Entreat thing is fantastic!! Thanks ILM.

Shoutout to the title track on this one.

hey bimble what was the track list for that quiet Black Sabbath comp you mentioned way upthread? That sounds like a unique treat! : )

when's the deluxe edt. of this coming out?.

hey bimble what was the track list for that quiet Black Sabbath comp you mentioned way upthread? That sounds like a unique treat! : )

I made 'We Sail Through Endless Skies: The Quiet Black Sabbath Album', check it.

Tracklist:

1 Embryo (Master of Reality)
2 Supertzar (Sabotage)
3 Orchid (Master of Reality)
4 She's Gone (Technical Ecstasy)
5 Changes (Vol. 4)
6 FX (Vol. 4)
7 Planet Caravan (Paranoid)
8 Fluff (Sabbath Bloody Sabbath)
9 It's Alright (Technical Ecstasy)
10 Laguna Sunrise (Vol. 4)
11 Solitude (Master of Reality)

good stuff!

After all these years it's Plainsong pour moi

the opening chords of plainsong evoke some weird shit in me.

otm

last couple of shows I've seen, title track and Prayers for Rain just didn't hit me, whereas Plainsong and even, like, "Last Dance" and "Closedown" totally do. It sucks when you so want "prayers for raaaaaaaaaaaaaan" to just shatter your goth soul, and nothing happens.

uh, rain

Plaaaaaaaainsoooooooooong

What is this picture at the start of the thread?

lolll

I was going to ask the same thing!

i traded bob mould's 'workbook' to a guy in uni for this. i like workbook, but i won.

a later college roommate claimed that in 'prayers for rain' smith was actually singing 'president reagan'.

i'm not a big 'lullabye' fan, but the album is grebt and especially 'plainsong', of course.

The picture at the start of the thread used to be the album cover (I swear!). Now I don't know what the hell it is!

it's better this way

Crazy coincidence: I was listening to Disintegration this morning for the first time in years.

Ok, maybe not massively crazy.

Anyway, I wanted to confirm that a track on the new Guillemots album sounds like 'Pictures Of You' - at least its chords do. Not a great story. As you were, everyone.

Read on a Cure blog:

Why did so many bands that made their careers in the 80's seem to peek at or around 1988-89? The Cure had Disintegration, New Order had Technique, Siouxsie had Peepshow, Depeche had Violator, etc... The next album after all of these were "good" and then the rest just...ok.

Were these not the pinnacle of these band's careers? Or were these just great albums to me because I was starting college, booze, and sex at that time?

the epitome of a "DUH" comment

That's for sure!

Esp. with regards to Peepshow. I mean, I like that album a lot but compare it to Juju, Tinderbox, The Scream, Kalaidescope...

For those of us who are actually fans of Depeche Mode, we know that they had released several great records before "Violator", and also did release several after. Those who expect them to be a "rock" band may think otherwise though.

(And The Cure did most of their best work before "Disintegration" too - in fact 1980-85 mainly)

Well apart from Peepshow, those are basically my favorite albums from these bands

I considered starting a "thread in which HOOS discovers the music of The Cure" but I am plenty self-indulgent already.

Just started hearing my first proper Cure albums this week. Porno didn't hit right away, was sort of coldly "impressive" but didn't kick me like I'd hoped it would. This on the other hand, Disintegration, is perfect and I wish I had discovered it when I was 15.

"Head On The Door" is better IMO but also a completely different thing musically.

I haven't listened to Disintegration in years. Are all the synths still as badly dated sounding? I was wondering if maybe those tones have come full circle and aren't as cringe-worthy anymore.

I was actually thinking it sounded like the M83 album I've been listening to all year.

i've never found the synths dated or cringe inducing.

The synths on this album are fantastic (except for "Closedown").

BTW on this most recent tour, the Boston setlist opened with "Plainsong" even though they had no keyboardist and I thought it was the first time the live context had the full-on bombast found on the album.

I'm thinking the synths sounded dated to me in the mid 90s. So by now, they're probably just right.

Are all the synths still as badly dated sounding?

We're speaking 1989. All synths from 1989 sound dated. Actually to a much larger extent than synths from 1981.

In another few years 1989's synths will sound perfect and hip, Geir. All you have to do is keep breathing and it all comes 'round... :)

Another useless post, but: Great album.

Welcome to the fold, Hoos!

"We're speaking 1989. All synths from 1989 sound dated. Actually to a much larger extent than synths from 1981."

See, I completely agree with this statement.

In another few years 1989's synths will sound perfect and hip, Geir.

Badly sampled "authentic" instruments played on synths will never, ever sound hip again. Never!

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn306/Floridian_20/stop_sign.jpg

i thought the picture at the top of this thread was originally the album cover? now it's something a lot... weirder

Roger O'Donnell on the making of Disintegration

Good lord, this is essential reading. Thanks!

I peeked through that earlier, was great stuff! It doesn't surprise me in the least that they were basically a light-hearted bunch of gadabouts. Clay pigeon shooting picture is U+K

Ah ha! Now I know what Paul Cox the photographer looks like thanks to that! I rather enjoyed seeing "Photo by..." and having my own name be there on my Cure posters in high school.

This says a lot:

I remember very clearly laughing and joking and fooling around in the control room while Robert was singing Disintegration and then all of us trying to be serious when he came in to listen back, I don’t know how he put up with it really. It was never a serious atmosphere in the studio and when you think about the album and how dark it is I'm sure people think we were sitting around slitting our wrists with candles and chains hanging from the walls. In fact years later working with Ross Robinson, he actually thought thats how we should work and he had this presumed idea of what the Cure should act like. It was completely wrong and false and just felt fake like we were trying to be the Cure, we were the Cure ... He never really understood that but thats another story..

basically a light-hearted bunch of gadabouts ...

... with a sub-schoolboy understanding of interpersonal relationships, by the sound of it. Either way: fascinating, fascinating reading. Thank you!

Very interesting stuff.

Plainsong?

Yes a wonderful song especially if you are a keyboard player. I loved to play that song live incredible feeling starting the show just Boris and I.

awesome

I keep laughing at how everyone has Land Rovers, Jeeps, and MG, but Robert was driving a weird Russian Lada 4x4.

Has this been addressed yet?

The Cure - Disintegration... THE PUFF...

Deluxe Edition - Polydor/Universal

Date : 24th May 2010

Three-Disc Deluxe Edition Produced & Compiled by Robert Smith, Including a Remastered Version of the Original Album, plus Unreleased Songs, Demos, Out-takes and Live Performances.

The Cure’s eighth studio album, released in 1989, is the dark tour de force Disintegration.

Following on from 1987's outstanding Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me release, and spurred by the hits “Lullaby”, “Fascination Street“, “Lovesong” and “Pictures Of You”, the album quickly became the group’s most successful yet, with sales topping more than 3 million, as the band sold out stadiums and arenas around the world.

Polydor/Universal reissues this landmark album, remastering the original, adding a disc of unreleased out-takes and demos, plus a third disc that contains a live performance of the entire album recorded in 1989 over 3 nights at Wembley Arena, London, the European climax of the The Cure's global ‘Prayer Tour‘. This Deluxe Edition comes with a 20 page booklet containing previously unseen pictures and art, as well as lyrics and an in depth overview of the period by the band's founder Robert Smith.

Robert Smith compiled, produced, and supervised the mastering of this three-disc collection, which covers the evolution of Disintegration, from demos and rehearsals to studio and stage. The first disc contains newly remastered versions of the album’s original 12 tracks.

Gathering 20 unreleased tracks, the second disc trawls through Smith’s home recordings to find early instrumental demos of fan favourites “Pictures Of You”, “Prayers For Rain” and “Fascination Street.” The Cure can be heard rehearsing and arranging various instrumental versions, including ”Homesick”, “Closedown” and “The Same Deep Water As You”, as well as playing studio out-takes of several other tracks, including “Plainsong”. The disc also contains four unreleased songs: “Noheart”, “Esten”, “Delirious Night” and a cover of Judy Collins’ “Pirate Ships”, the latter a solo performance by Smith that was recorded for, but ultimately not included on, Rubáiyát, a 1990 album celebrating Elektra Records’ 40th anniversary.

For the final disc, Smith remixes and expands Entreat, a live album recorded in 1989 at Wembley Arena. Entreat Plus combines the original’s eight tracks, remixed with the four 'missing' songs to create a complete contemporary live version of Disintegration.

Comments Stuart Braithwaite of Mogwai: “Disintegration by The Cure is one of the greatest records of all time. It has the feel that only a tiny amount of albums have, that it exists completely in its own universe, immune to context or fashion. I literally cannot imagine the band members in a room playing these songs for the first time, its as if they've always been there. From stunning opener “Plainsong” through to “Untitled”, it is unrelentingly beautiful and achingly sad. Disintegration is a simply wonderful record.”

DISINTEGRATION: DELUXE EDITION

Disc One: Remastered Album

01: Plainsong

02: Pictures Of You

03: Closedown

04: Lovesong

05: Last Dance

06: Lullaby

07: Fascination Street

08: Prayers For Rain

09: The Same Deep Water As You

10: Disintegration

11: Homesick

12: Untitled

Disc Two: Rarities (1988 - 1989)

01: Prayers For Rain – RS Home Demo (Instrumental)

02: Pictures Of You – RS Home Demo (Instrumental)

03: Fascination Street – RS Home Demo (Instrumental)

04: Homesick – Band Rehearsal (Instrumental)

05: Fear Of Ghosts – Band Rehearsal (Instrumental)

06: Noheart – Band Rehearsal (Instrumental)*

07: Esten – Band Demo (Instrumental)*

08: Closedown – Band Demo (Instrumental)

09: Lovesong – Band Demo (Instrumental)

10: 2 Late (alternate version) – Band Demo (Instrumental)

11: The Same Deep Water As You – Band Demo (Instrumental)

12: Disintegration – Band Demo (Instrumental)

13: Untitled (alternate version) – Studio Rough (Instrumental)

14: Babble (alternate version) – Studio Rough (Instrumental)

15: Plainsong – Studio Rough (Guide Vocal)

16: Last Dance – Studio Rough (Guide Vocal)

17: Lullaby – Studio Rough (Guide Vocal)

18: Out Of Mind – Studio Rough (Guide Vocal)

19: Delirious Night – Rough Mix (Vocal)*

20: Pirate Ships – RS Solo, Rough Mix (Vocal)*

* Previously Unreleased Song

Disc Three: Entreat Plus

01: Plainsong*

02: Pictures Of You

03: Closedown

04: Lovesong*

05: Last Dance

06: Lullaby*

07: Fascination Street

08: Prayers For Rain

09: The Same Deep Water As You*

10: Disintegration

11: Homesick

12: Untitled

* Previously Unreleased Live Performance

Very much talked about a lot on the Cure reissues thread. And I am waiting very (im)patiently for it.

Ahh, I missed all that then. Today was the first time I saw the contents. Exciting!

found on youtube, not sure if legit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shJmHOkJXDA

fancy new website for this reissue :

http://www.thecuredisintegration.com

The alternative rarities have been discussed somewhat on the Cure reissues thread.

Quite right:

http://www.austin360.com/music/music-blogs/the-epic-sound-of-falling-apart-731267.html?cxtype=rss_a-list_123074

There are two kinds of Cure fans in the world: those who believe that "Disintegration" is not only the best Cure album but one of the signature albums of the 1980s and those who were born before roughly 1969 or after, say, 1976.

Before '69, you probably have vivid high school memories of "The Head on the Door," the Cure's epic singles collection, or "Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me." After '77, you probably have warm feelings toward the radio smash "Friday I'm in Love."

But for those of us in that sweet spot, for lots of girls and for lots of guys who thought girls would like them if they acted more like girls, "Disintegration" is "Dark Side of the Moon," a generational landmark up there with the Challenger disaster and seeing your first Mac. Suffice it to say that had "Donnie Darko" been set one year later, "Disintegration" might as well have played through the whole thing.

Why yes I was born in 1971.

After '77, you probably have warm feelings toward the radio smash "Friday I'm in Love."

not especially!!

Disintegration is one of the greatest albums of all time obv

yeah i don't agree with that theory at all

re: years, i agree with crut's theory

i believe this is the all-time greatest "coming down" album ever

coming down from...?

i believe this is the all-time greatest "coming down" album ever

yeah i don't agree with that theory at all

it's pretty dopey, stuff like standing on a beach and disintegration are canonical enough that plenty of young folks get into them first. and he ignores the pornography cult entirely.

i was just going to say, that's a daft theory. what about those of us who think the cure never bettered seventeen seconds/faith/pornography? where do we fit into his supersmug theory?

^^^^

(add The Top to that and I'm on yr page)

There are two kinds of Beach Boys fans in the world: those who believe that "Pet Sounds" is not only the best Beach Boys album but one of the signature albums of the 1960s and those who were born before roughly 1946 or after, say, 1953. Before '46, you probably have vivid high school memories of "Surfina USA" or "Party!" After '53, you probably have warm feelings toward the radio smash "Kokomo."

The theory as set-in-stone formalism doesn't hold, the feeling he's talking about at the time rings pretty damn true. And as someone who has listened to Faith more often than any other album of theirs as time has gone by, I still appreciate that sense of what 1989 was.

coming down from...?

― cutty, Monday, June 7, 2010 10:48 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

a lighthouse

the eighties maaaan xp

a generational landmark up there with the apollo moon launch and seeing your first color TV

a generational landmark up there with watching my brother's friend blankly stare at the rotary dial of our phone.

Hey, YOU were the one who got him high.

It was around 1993, which would have made him seven or so. I'm not that irresponsible.

But kids these days etc.

...with their "Fridays I'm Love" and their videos not directed by Tim Pope. they just don't know!

I was thinking more drugged-out seven years with phones per earlier comments, but I suppose that could work.

Anyway, the reissue is mine and I am very happy. Helps that I haven't listened to the album in over a decade, I find it familiar and fresh at once. He sounds so young at points now to my mind.

There are two kinds of Beach Boys fans in the world: those who believe that "Pet Sounds" is not only the best Beach Boys album but one of the signature albums of the 1960s and those who were born before roughly 1946 or after, say, 1953. Before '46, you probably have vivid high school memories of "Surfina USA" or "Party!" After '53, you probably have warm feelings toward the radio smash "Kokomo."

― da croupier, Monday, June 7, 2010 2:55 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark

<3 lol

Anyway, the reissue is mine and I am very happy.

So it's released today? I went to three record stores and couldn't find it here...

Yeah, its out, even the big chains had it... but for forty fucking dollars! I'm ordering mine offa Amazon for $25 instead.

I second "best coming down album ever." nothing better after a crazy night out of your mind on acid than dawn and disintegration.

thank u

Ordered this from Amazon last night for $25.99 shipped, no tax. Very excited.

My thoughts here.

(I once tried to set up a conversation between Cure frontman Robert Smith and Deftones vocalist Chino Moreno for a magazine feature, but Smith wouldn't participate.)

!!

Phil's right there. And guess who the interviewer was going to be...

mc hammer

I lacked the pants. Which they would have sensed over the phone.

Stop! Raggetttime!

I was just listening to Isis's Panopticon while walking to the post office, and there's a lot of Disintegration influence on that album, it seems to me, particularly the bass sound.

There could/should be a compilation of metal covers of Cure songs over the years. Deftones as noted, there's Misery Loves Company, "The Drowning Man"...

The Cure = my favorite band (or so I proclaimed from about 2000-05, before I started buying/listening to waaaayy too much music to even really keep track of "my favorite band" anymore).

Panopticon = my favorite Isis album, by far.

Do the math?

xp

i just got this today = greatest day ever.

now to find the right time to listen to this again in all its glory.

Guys (who already have this reissue), how's the remastering job? Nabisco points out in his Pfork review that things are a little... squished together.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14288-disintegration-deluxe-edition

Nabisco: Wembley Arena is not Wembley Stadium, btw

Oh crap! Sorry, total north-American ignorance on my part -- I'll let them know to correct the wording.

(still one of the biggest venues in western Europe, right?)

Yeah, stadium > arena (of which Wembley is one of the biggest, I think) > hall, I'd say.

wembley stadium = 90,000; arena a piddling 12,500 by comparison, and pretty average for arena size i reckon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_indoor_arenas#Europe

Actually, it's not that big. Max. capacity 12,500 - Earl's Court can hold 19,000 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_indoor_arenas_in_the_United_Kingdom ) - don't know if any of these are ever used as music venues but the 146th in this list is still 15,000 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_indoor_arenas_by_capacity

xpost: that's what I was looking for! thx :-)

I wouldn't say Wembley was one of the biggest arenas in Europe. There are quite a few bigger ones, e.g. the O2 and MEN in the UK, Bercy in Paris, Stadthalle in Vienna, SAP in Mannheim, etc.

xp

I like the review! (suddenly feeling guilty for ruining nabisco's day with irrelevant numbers) :-/

I was at one of those Wembley shows. Support was Shelleyann Orphan if anyone remembers them.

Shelleyan even.

I do indeed. Still got their album Helleborine around somewhere.

pretty mind-boggling that a fey group like that played Wembley, I can't imagine how they must have gone down

With rather more of a whimper than a bang iirc. Not really a band that could compete with the roar of 12,500 goths chatting.

Reposting below the Wembley talk...

Guys (who already have this reissue), how's the remastering job? Nabisco points out in his Pfork review that things are a little... squished together.

wiki has this to say:

The album's complex arrangements, lyrics rooted in romantic poetry, and liberal use of bassoon and oboe/cor anglais (unusual in any pop album), led to the labelling of the band as "pretentious" by the British music press.

loving those scare quotes

her vocals on the last This Mortal Coil record were wonderful though.

xp

well the Cranes playing the Rose Bowl was pretty surreal as well...

Should hopefully get changed to say it's one of the biggest (music) venues in the UK

I generally try not to make a big deal out of remaster/loudness issues -- everyone who cares already knows how it works -- but I think it's relevant with this one, because the it's part of how the album works, in terms of being comfortable and immersive and easy to sink into. I mean, it's not an issue that's gonna mess up an album like this, but it's always too bad to think a remaster might be diminishing the sound a little.

I don't like to make a big deal out of remastering jobs, either, but I see your point re: this album in particular. Is it noticeably worse, though? Or can I blast this remaster to the high heavens with the windows down on the freeway and not tell it's been squashed to some extent in the remastering process? I agree it's meant to be played loud, and fully intend to do so.

I think it sounds good - dynamic range is fine. I looked at the wave images in Audacity -- "Love Song" had pretty much no clipping. The end of "Fascination Street" has a little bit, but not so much that one could easily tell the difference audibly. I was a fan of their early albums, and could take or leave their spottier mid-80s albums The Top, Head On The Door and Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me. However I find that many of those songs have really embedded themselves into my consciousness. I can't say the same for Disintegration, which came out my sophomore in college when my brainspace was more occupied with Sonic Youth, Pixies, Dinosaur Jr. and the like. It sounds pretty good though, and feels to me like their most consistent since Pornography.

Well, it's not just about clipping, it's about the changes that have to be made to avoid clipping! Honestly, it's not a bad job at all; there is nothing weird or egregious about it; I think this just turns out to be one record where modern remastering changes the way it works/feels a little more than with most.

Yeah, it only sounds distracting - and minimally at that - if you focus too much on the remastering. But 99% of folks will think this sounds great - on headphones, in the car, at home on the stereo. I say no harm, no foul.

One thing I've noticed while listening to Disintegration again is how reverb heavy it is. I mean there's some kind of reverb on every element in just about every song. This is something my teenaged brain and subsequent listens didn't really pick up on but Smith was def. going for an immersive experience with all these fx. Compare with the relatively dry recordings on most of "Kiss Me..." (my 2nd fave Cure album).

reverb was the first thing I noticed about the album as soon as "plainsong" kicked in

I like how this album gets a 10.0 and Pornography's reissue got 8.4

you guys, damn

"Immersive" is a good word for it. I've always listened to it as very watery, too, as in "oceanic."

I've never noticed the reverb so much as the rampant flanging.

I like how this album gets a 10.0 and Pornography's reissue got 8.4

Pfork OTM.

Also ksh OTM, more proof that Pfork only pulls out the 10.0 for reissues now.

Albums Rated 10.0

Initial release:

* ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead – Source Tags & Codes
* 12 Rods - Gay? (EP)
* Bonnie 'Prince' Billy – I See a Darkness
* Bob Dylan – The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert
* The Flaming Lips – The Soft Bulletin
* Robert Pollard – Relaxation of the Asshole (In the review, this album theoretically received both a 10.0 and 0.0 rating)
* Radiohead – Kid A
* Radiohead – OK Computer
* Amon Tobin – Bricolage
* Walt Mink – El Producto
* Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Re-release and compilations:

* Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
* The Beatles - Abbey Road
* The Beatles - The Beatles
* The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour
* The Beatles - Revolver
* The Beatles - Rubber Soul
* The Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
* Boards of Canada – Music has the Right to Children
* Glenn Branca – The Ascension
* James Brown – Live at the Apollo
* The Clash – The Essential Clash
* The Clash – London Calling
* John Coltrane – The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording
* Elvis Costello – This Year's Model
* The Cure - Disintegration
* Miles Davis – Kind of Blue
* Miles Davis – Sketches of Spain
* DJ Shadow – Endtroducing
* The Fall – This Nation's Saving Grace
* Serge Gainsbourg - Histoire de Melody Nelson
* Galaxie 500 - On Fire
* Joy Division – Closer
* Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures
* Kiss – Alive!
* Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
* Pavement – Slanted and Enchanted
* Pavement – Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
* Pavement - Quarantine the Past: The Best of Pavement
* Pink Floyd – Animals
* R.E.M. - Murmur
* R.E.M. - Reckoning
* Radiohead - The Bends
* Otis Redding - Otis Blue
* The Replacements - Let It Be
* The Rolling Stones - Exile On Main St.
* Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation
* Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space
* Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run
* The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
* The Stooges – Raw Power
* Television – Marquee Moon
* The Velvet Underground – Loaded
* The Who – Odds and Sods
* Wire – Pink Flag
* Wire – Chairs Missing
* XTC – English Settlement
* Various Artists – No Thanks!: The 70s Punk Rebellion

i was born in 1979 and couldn't possibly avoid "Friday's I'm In Love" and would have no idea how, crate-digging 10-year-old miccio and crut would have somehow discovered their "canonical early work" first

Best Album Rated 10.0 by Pitchfork Media Upon Its Initial Release (sorry...!)

i was born in 1979 and couldn't possibly avoid "Friday's I'm In Love" and would have no idea how, crate-digging 10-year-old miccio and crut would have somehow discovered their "canonical early work" first

I was 4 in 1992 and I only fucked w/garth brooks & randy travis. The first Cure song I heard was probably "Just Like Heaven" played on the local top 40 station's eighties night when I was like 10, tho that was years before I knew who the Cure were. I wasn't quite the crate-digger yet.

Kids today and their crate-digging. Heard the Clash yet?

What would be the point?

i was born in 1979 and couldn't possibly avoid "Friday's I'm In Love" and would have no idea how, crate-digging 10-year-old miccio and crut would have somehow discovered their "canonical early work" first

"love song" was a #2 hit when we were nine or ten, dude. also saw the video for "just like heaven," lived in a college town and had a babysitter who owned Mixed Up before Wish came out. sorry this freaks you out!

saw "fascination street" when i was a kid on MTV, too. it's not like the cure weren't already an MTV presence before Wish.

also it's not like i denied people my age may have heard "friday" first (srsly chris, read before you challop), just with the silly idea that your favorite cure album would be whatever you heard first, or that all kids born since 1977 would be into "friday" more than Pornography, or disintegration or standing on a beach stuff, just because it happened after. are kids born since 1987 more into the ross robinson album?

pretty sure the whole reason Wish could do well as an album in the U.S. was that the Cure had already become a major well-known "cult" act -- a hit and a half off Disintegration (anyone with a top-40 station could have heard "Lovesong"), a huge tour, word of mouth, the remix record, people had seen other people do their hair like them, etc. -- so all they needed was a pleasant pop song like "Fridays I'm in Love" to roll through wide-open media

and by "cult" I mean mainstream-level "cult" -- in terms of something like MTV, they were a big cult act by "Just Like Heaven." (I think they played it at an MTV awards thing at the time, actually.)

The "DisintegratIon" tour was one of those instances where the morning after, everyone in my high school was wearing a t-shirt.

(I should stress a Cure tour t-shirt; regular t-shirts - some with band names - were otherwise pretty common on a daily basis)

people had seen other people do their hair like them

loooooooool

That kind of thing is always really hard for me to imagine. But yeah, I grew up in a place that wasn't exactly up on trends -- a town in southern Colorado -- and got interested in rock/indie music around 1990: as I remember it, the two absolute easiest "college rock" groups to access at that point were the Cure and R.E.M. And I think the Cure were ahead by a long shot until "Losing My Religion." And a lot of this was less about MTV or radio play and more about just general teenage cult-icon status: t-shirts, haircuts, tape-borrowing ... they were just around and visible.

xpost - haha ilxor this is exactly what I mean -- when you're young or in school, that's a big thing!

I loved REM since Green (first CD I ever bought with my own money), but had no idea how many people were in the group until I bought the thing (first I thought they were an up-with-people/hooray-for-everything multiracial combo thanks to the "Stand" video) and didn't know which one was the singer until "losing my religion." Robert Smith on the other hand was a pretty obvious icon.

I knew REM long before I knew the Cure but that's because my mom knew who REM were

xpost - The other brief setback for REM was probably that their first hit came off pretty jokey/novelty.

Now I'm stuck thinking about how everyone else fared in that end-of-the-80s college-act pack ... next back was probably Depeche Mode, right? Who had the singles, but not as much beloved-icon stuff as the Cure or favorite-band stuff as REM. (Haha and Morrissey did great on the "cult" part but had no chance yet of a US hit.) There was a commercial-peak/iconic-album moment for this kind of thing, I guess, and then obviously a couple years later everything tipped hard into American alt/indie.

when i was in 7th-8th gr (87-89 approx) my favorite bands were REM, INXS, XTC, U2, The Cure, Violent Femmes, and Depeche Mode. There were literally LEGIONS of girls like me. i felt special, though, because everyone else was listening to hair metal where i lived. i also first heard "just like heaven" on the radio and it changed my life.

don't forget the b-52's and new order! dunno if fine young cannibals count.

as for rem's jokey/novelty deal, rem's first top ten pop hit was "the one i love," not "stand."

By the time Disintegration came out, I was under the impression that The Cure was a huge band -- almost everyone I knew loved them: Catholic schoolgirls, skater dudes, dorks like me, everyone. Tons of people were wearing the tshirt the day after the tour came through Cleveland in 9th gr. By the time Wish came out, it sounded kinda corny.

9th grade was when I branched out a lot. But 7th-8th grade was all about those bands.

first REM I heard was "it's the end of the world as we know it," lol

first REM i heard was "the one i love" on the radio in maybe 6th grade? i grew up listening to tons of classic rock and top 40 stuff, so when i heard this it was like WHOA. just like everyone else.

xpost - I had no idea "The One I Love" charted that well! I stand corrected.

This is basically just my own age and taste talking, but this always looks like a pretty nice window for alt/college stuff, where there were good things happening both on the new-wavey commercial end (all these bands above) plus there was a lot of big accessible stuff happening (or coming) on the more American-indie/punk side (with Sonic Youth, Pixies, Dinosaur Jr., etc.). I guess I've written before about how those two sides seemed to merge together to create the whole future template of "alternative"/"indie" -- which might be incorrect, but always feels about right to me.

(hahaha I remember being slightly conflicted in 91/92, because I'd just gotten really into the more 80s/British/college/new-wavey side of things, and then it was immediately dethroned by grungier American stuff -- which I also enjoyed, but I was kinda like "damn you, I just got my bearings!")

where there were good things happening both on the new-wavey commercial end (all these bands above) plus there was a lot of big accessible stuff happening (or coming) on the more American-indie/punk side (with Sonic Youth, Pixies, Dinosaur Jr., etc.).

see, this ^^ is the difference between middle school and high school for me.

Ha, bearings. Am I the only one that still pretty much likes and listens to everything I've always liked and listened to, with more added to the list every day? I never identified music with "scenes," I guess, even though said "scenes" were pretty obvious, in retrospect. That said, I knew far more jocks and assholes that listened to the Cure than any other one group - dunno why. In my high school (and Nabisco, I think I'm a couple of years older than you), if memory serves, the "outsiders" listened to Sub Pop stuff, AmRep, SST, Matador, etc. Noisy stuff, no synths. Or metal. Or hip-hop, even. But the Cure seemed pretty prevalent. Granted, only "Kiss Me ..." and "Disintegration" Cure. Not a lot of dudes blasting "Faith."

FWIW, the next tour that I recall provoking a similar wave of tour s-shirt wearing was the "Songs of Faith and Devotion" tour, which I suppose was also a "Disintegration"/"Wish"-like album after the breakthrough.

BTW, I've always been intrigued by Christgau's (mis?)reading of the album:

Disintegration [Elektra, 1989]
With the transmutation of junk a species of junk itself, an evasion available to any charlatan or nincompoop, it's tempting to ignore this patent arena move altogether. But by pumping his bad faith and bad relationship into depressing moderato play-loud keyb anthems far more tedious than his endless vamps, Robert Smith does actually confront a life contradiction. Not the splintered relationship, needless to say, although the title tune is a suitably grotesque breakup song among unsuitably grotesque breakup songs. As with so many stars, even "private" ones who make a big deal of their "integrity," Smith's demon lover is his audience, now somehow swollen well beyond his ability to comprehend, much less control. Hence the huge scale of these gothic cliches. And watch out, you mass, 'cause if you don't accept this propitiation he just may start contemplating suicide again. Or take his money and go home. C+

I wonder if he wrote this before the album was a bona arena-packing fide hit.

this band blows

nabisco and I grew up in the same town (kind of; I was there 1981 to 1987 and then moved back to california at the end of my freshman year of HS). 1987 the cure were definitely a "thing" there but a "thing" for "freaks". In fact I disliked them, mainly because the one persion I knew who championed them was a douche of a friend. REM were better known and better accepted. I never heard any of these bands on the radio there though; REM I found through tapes that a friend got from his cousin (along with lots of other skate rock). The Smiths were probably better known than the Cure, or at least, better accepted. Independent Records in that town stocked all of this stuff though. But really, midwest US to me, at that time, essentially = Bon Jovi or real metal.

my point being, then I came to california in 1987 and the Cure were everywhere already. Kiss Me 3x came out and it was enormous. The Prayer tour was a massive thing, no doubt.

when i was in 7th-8th gr (87-89 approx) my favorite bands were REM, INXS, XTC, U2, The Cure, Violent Femmes, and Depeche Mode. There were literally LEGIONS of girls like me.

otm for me too, a couple years later. suburbs imo.

I think I was 13 when my 17 yo cousin played 'Lullaby' for me. It's a cliche but that song changed everything for me & my relationship with music. And the chronology is all mushed up but even before that it felt like they were huge, like Duran Duran huge. I remember being fascinated by the idea of a boy wearing lipstick, cousins & older female friends had his posters on their walls...more like some kind of Jesus than just a pop star, it was all different. Anyhoo, I was well aware of the cure before 'Friday' showed up.

so I'm on "Pictures of You" listening to the reissue and srsly why do I never play this album anymore

huh, still not a big fan of "Closedown" tho

haha yeah i know - I put it on Sunday and realized I had not listened to this in 15 years and what a beast of an album it really was

The initial success of Wish was definitely a Soundscan era fluke; however there's a huge possibility that Disintegration would easily have spent several weeks in the top ten when "Lovesong" was a #2 hit. Every single got massive play on my college radio station; and when you consider that Mixed Up (the first Cure album I got with my own money) came out only a few months after "Pictures of You" you had this period when The Cure was a ubiquitous "modern rock" and MTV presence (I'm assuming the latter, cuz I didn't have MTV then).

"Lovesong" was the first real instance of Robert playing with lyrical repetition where he's doing variations on a theme rather than repeating the first verse as a code, yes? Is there another song structured like that before this (I can't think of anything, most of what he did before was rambling narrative although you can see hints of it in "Boys Don't Cry" and "The Hanging Garden"), and if not was this song's massive success the thing that led him to start writing everything like that?

ha I still get chills from that opening guitar riff in "Lullaby"; there are so many ways in which that is the PERFECT Cure song

HIS ARMS ARE AROUND ME AND HIS TONGUE IN MY EYES

yeah I like the new stuff a lot but MAN THIS ALBUM

I wonder if he wrote this before the album was a bona arena-packing fide hit.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, June 11, 2010 7:41 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark

The review was part of that year's Turkey Shoot -- roughly six months after it was released, then.

The only concrete thing I can remember about Disintegration is that it was the first tape that cost me over $10.

Everything through "The Walk" sounds as great as ever, but Disintegration apparently does nothing for me these days.

I'M BEGGING TO DRAG YOU DOWN WITH ME

It's amazing that I am listening to this on my terrible work headphones and it is having almost exactly the same emotional impact on me as it did when I first heard it 21 years ago.

holy fuck 21 years ago

I actually don't know why "Lovesong" was the crossover hit – payola? lyrical simplicity? a confluence of all these things and others? ("Just Like Heaven" gets a hundred times more airplay now). I know it was my least favorite single by a country mile; it's one of those songs whose charms you exhaust real quick.

From the same Turkey Shoot:

GLORIA ESTEFAN: Cuts Both Ways (Epic) I was perplexed to catch myself enjoying parts of this until I recognized the feels-so-good-when-it-stops syndrome--who wouldn't perk up at a sleek salsa montuno or tap-dancing synperc break when the alternative is Karen Carpenter with an unlocked pelvis? "Get On Your Feet" importunes too much--these rhythms aren't gonna get you. C

I always liked "Karen Carpenter with an unlocked pelvis" but wonder if he felt bad after her accident.

Gloria's, that is.

holy fuck 21 years ago

amazing for a 21st-anniversary reissue of an album

lol I old too

oh shit, this live version of "Homesick"

I actually don't know why "Lovesong" was the crossover hit

It was a question of timing. Their popularity had been growing in North America since The Head On The Door and they had their first Top 40 hit with "Just Like Heaven". It was obvious that they were going to be big with their next album and that they were going to have a hit as soon as they put out a "radio friendly" single. I was also disappointed at the time that it happened with "Lovesong", which I didn't like as much as most of their previous singles.

Can't wait to hear this!!! So anxious.

I actually don't know why "Lovesong" was the crossover hit

Because it's a hugely accessible, universally identifiable, catchy as fuck pop song?

"Inbetween Days" and "Just Like Heaven" were too!

It was a question of timing. Their popularity had been growing in North America since The Head On The Door and they had their first Top 40 hit with "Just Like Heaven". It was obvious that they were going to be big with their next album and that they were going to have a hit as soon as they put out a "radio friendly" single. I was also disappointed at the time that it happened with "Lovesong", which I didn't like as much as most of their previous singles

yup.

this is like asking why "beth" was kiss's breakout hit and not "rock and roll all nite" or "strutter"

RESPECT THE LOVE BALLAD

Da Croup OTM, I mean c'mon -- it's exactly what it is, a catchy pop song on a big breakout album!

And yeah, still great, this whole thing.

Really my only regret about this album is that not everyone went as batshit over "Lullaby" as they did over "Lovesong". I get WHY, but it still is kind of a bummer to the 16-year-old in my heart.

Combine Tim Pope's videos for both songs and there you go, Film Studies 101 -- Introduction to Freudianism

i think the video to lullaby was my intro to the cure, and holy shit did it scare me as a 9 or 10 year old.

I love "Lullaby" more than anything on the album – such a fantastic sound. The remix is even more of a great thing.

weirdly, mixed up was the first cure album i bought though!

"...beginning with....ESSSSSS"

If it wasn't for "Never Enough, I'd feel like they never actually recovered from doing the "Lullaby" video. Like, they went "okay, we have reached our platonic ideal so there's really no point in trying on any other video we do" or something; I can't think of any other explanation for the "Friday I'm In Love", "Wrong Number" or "Taking Off".

Although I'd forgotten about the video for "The 13th" lolol:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N9piZjt_k8

Also I really really hate the single mix of "Lullaby"; I think it kind of ruins the song.

I hope the spider man has you for dinner tonight.

Maybe it's nostalgia talking, but I love "Never Enough."

That's not nostalgia, that is a fucking SLEDGEHAMMER of a song.

"Never Enough" remains fantastic, I remember at the time it was claimed this was them 'going baggy'

I love that stuttered guitar bit on the Mixed Up version.

Also the single had a killer B-side in "Harold and Joe" and a remix of "Let's Go to Bed" that should have been on the main album, really.

i think Never Enough was what convinced me to buy Mixed Up -- still love that song.

The video for "The 13th" really makes me regret that its the only time they worked with sophie mueller. I might have even gotten into later singles if she was there to help.

Really my only regret about this album is that not everyone went as batshit over "Lullaby" as they did over "Lovesong".

NEW ILM POLL: Most accessible, instantly relatatable Robert Smith lyric?

"However far away, I will always love you" - 85

...
..
.

"The spiderman is having me for dinner tonight" - 2

"I stoned the only girl I loved, and drowned her deep in sodomy" 15

okay if that was the actual lyric, I would be even more into that song

I can't imagine how fucked up my life would have been at fifteen had it been the actual lyric.

lots of otm-ness here. Absolutely loved Never Enough when it came out shame they immediately dropped the main riff when they played it live

and Ned otm indeed - the LOGTB remix was my favorite from that project. Such a strange and intriguing vibe from that version

Hearing that and Orbit's Shiver mix of "Inbetween Days" made me think Mixed Up was going to be much, much better than it actually was.

uggghhhh mixed up

still pissed off about that mix of "The Caterpillar" tbh

hahahaha YES YOU ARE CORRECT

tbh Inbetween Days and yes Caterpillar were the most horrendous things on that

haha totally loved mixed up when it was the only cure album i owned back in elementary school, not even sure where my copy went after I finally heard the originals.

The best ones were left off ("Lets Go To Bed" and "Primary"), but I don't dislike the "Caterpillar" remix.

The album versions of "Why Can't I Be You" and "Hot Hot Hot" are much more exciting than the Mixed Up versions.

Finally holding a copy in my hot little hands, thanks to the wonderful Mrs. via/chicago. Ironic that such a notoriously depressing album would be the bright spot of my otherwise craptastic afternoon.

Happy 25th.

I freakin love the Cure. This was the first Cure album I ever heard, I found the vinyl used at a thrift store, and ended up giving it to a goth girl I had a crush on for Xmas. It's a shame it's such a nice day outside, it almost doesn't feel appropriate to play the album in such weather.

This will be wildly unpopular, but this record doesn't even make my Top 5 for Cure albums.. It's all a bit "samey" to me, but in a far different way than Faith or Seventeen Seconds were. No doubt that Disintegration paints some vast and desolate landscapes, and they are far more sophisticated than those displayed on those earlier somber albums. I mean, the love and longing oozes from beautifully stretched-out themes -- a very new trick for a band a decade in. I guess i like his more tortured material, or, sometimes the more bubble-gum-ey fun stuff.

Don't get me wrong, it was a great new place to move the material and it sold tons of copies, but really pointed to the beginning of the end in my view. For my money, the never were as lethal as they were with Kiss Me.

this weekend on a whim (if slightly inspired by the v tedious discussion of how much jason cooper sucks) i decided to listen to every cure record in order, and hitting disintegration was prob the most dramatic shift in the sequence; it's not really an aesthetic shift i think (it pretty clearly follows up on a lot of the ground staked out on kiss me and besides the most dramatic aesthetic shift in the cure discography is prob still pornography->"let's go to bed"); it's more about scale, where kiss me was a ton of very tonally distinct songs squeezed down into an excitable mercurial space where they could sit together dissonantly and constantly surprise!!! you, every song here is enormous and is almost its own individual space, so that the album feels to me like a series of linked domes in which different weather patterns are preserved

i've been mostly drawn to the expanded entreat on the deluxe reissue bc i've lived with the original album for fifteen years and it differs enough (especially in the shimmering guitar interludes on "pictures of you") that it's like hearing it from a slightly adjusted angle (it's also, as documented upthread, a really excellent performance), which is allowing me to additionally recognize that, even as my tastes have developed a lot since first hearing this at fifteen years old, disintegration and "plainsong" in particular contain so much of what i still value about music, they're like the permanent center of something around which the surface has drifted and warped considerably, and it still enriches and informs that drifting and warping. anyway, <3 u disintegration, i thought faith was maybe my new favorite cure record, but nope

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G5YguuNSJg

A fine celebration. :-)

Happy 30th! <eek smiley>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv18HTqbqmw

first 5 minutes of this are a tear-jerker.