Disintegration is the eighth studio album by English alternative rock band The Cure, released on 12 May 1989 on Fiction Records. The record marks a return to the introspective and gloomy style the band had established in the early 1980s. Vocalist and guitarist Robert Smith felt an increased pressure to release The Cure's greatest work as he was nearing the age of thirty. This, coupled with a distaste for his newfound popularity, also caused Smith to resume use of hallucinogenic drugs, which was an influence on the album.

In spite of record label fears that the album would be "commercial suicide", Disintegration became the band's commercial peak. Charting at number three in the United Kingdom and number 12 in the United States, while producing several hit singles, Disintegration is The Cure's best selling record to date with 2.6 million copies shifted worldwide. The record was also a critical success, being placed at number 326 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic called it a "culmination of all the musical directions the Cure were pursuing over the course of the '80s."

Background

The band's 1987 double album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me pushed them into even more successful waters, with a sold-out world tour booked in its wake. Despite the success, internal friction became prevalent. Tolhurst began to consume heavy amounts of alcohol, rendering him useless. Roger O'Donnell was hired as a second keyboardist to pick up the slack; O'Donnell quickly realised Tolhurst was essentially dead weight: "I couldn't see why [Tolhurst] was in the band. He could have afforded to hire a tutor and have daily lessons, but he wasn't interested in practicing. He just liked being in the group." The rest of the band was equally unimpressed. As Tolhurst's alcohol consumption increased, Smith recalled that his behaviour was similar to that of "some kind of handicapped child being constantly poked with a stick." At the end of the Kissing Tour, Smith became uncomfortable with the side effects of being a pop-star and moved to Maida Vale with fiancée Mary Poole. Regularly using LSD to cope with his depression, Smith once again felt The Cure was being misunderstood and sought to return to the band's dark side with their next record.

Recording and production

Soon after disbanding, Smith came up with the idea of what would become the band's biggest American hit to date, "Lovesong". Written as a wedding present for Mary Poole, the lyrics had a noticeably different mood than the rest of the record, but Smith felt it was an integral component of Disintegration: "It's an open show of emotion. It's not trying to be clever. It's taken me ten years to reach the point where I feel comfortable singing a very straightforward love song." The lyrics were a notable shift in his ability to reveal affection. In the past, Smith felt it necessary to disguise or mask such a statement. He noted that without "Lovesong", Disintegration would have been radically different: "That one song, I think, makes many people think twice. If that song wasn't on the record, it would be very easy to dismiss the album as having a certain mood. But throwing that one in sort of upsets people a bit because they think, 'That doesn't fit'."

By the time The Cure entered Hook End Manor Studios in Reading, the band's attitude had grown increasingly sour due to Lol Tolhurst's escalating alcohol abuse. Smith, however, insisted that his displeasure was, instead, caused by a meltdown in the face of recording The Cure's career-defining album and reaching thirty. Displeased with the swollen ego he believed his band mates possessed, Smith entered what he considered to be "one of my non-talking modes," deciding "I would be monk-like and not talk to anyone. It was a bit pretentious really, looking back, but I actually wanted an environment that was slightly unpleasant." He sought to abandon the mood present on Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me and the pop singles they had released, and rather recreate the vibes on the band's fourth album Pornography. Suicide was another topic Smith thought about on several occasions. Shortly before the band started recording Disintegration, two teenagers committed suicide in a nearby town. It was revealed that the pair played The Cure's early albums during the act. Smith kept a newspaper clipping of the incident pinned to the wall in the studio: "I know it's tragic, but at the same time it's grimly funny because it obviously had nothing to do with us. We are just singled out."

Tolhurst, meanwhile, was becoming a nuisance. The band found him impossible to work with, and he spent most of the recording process drunk watching MTV. The members of the band, save for Smith, would taunt and physically abuse Tolhurst simply to get a reaction. Smith recalls that Tolhurst turned into someone he did not recognise: "I didn't know who he was any more and he didn't know who he was either. Making the Disintegration album, I used to despair and scream at the others because it was fucking insane the way we were treating him." At that point, Smith was allowing Tolhurst to remain in the band because he felt an obligation to him as an old friend. The band eventually threatened to quit if Tolhurst was not fired before the end of the recording session. When Tolhurst arrived to the mixing of the album excessively drunk, a shouting match ensued and he left the building furious; this effectively terminated his tenure with The Cure. Although Tolhurst claims differently, Smith and the rest of the group confirm he contributed nothing to the record. Therefore, Roger O'Donnell became an integral member of The Cure, instead of simply a touring musician. Despite Tolhurst's ejection from the group, Smith told NME in April 1989, "He'll probably be back by Christmas. He's getting married, maybe that's his comeback."

Release and reception

Rolling Stone gave Disintegration a rating of three and a half stars, out of five. Reviewer Michael Azerrad felt that "while Disintegration doesn't break new ground for the band, it successfully refines what the Cure does best." He concluded, "Despite the title, Disintegration hangs together beautifully, creating and sustaining a mood of thoroughly self-absorbed gloom. If, as Smith has hinted, the Cure itself is about to disintegrate, this is a worthy summation. Melody Maker reviewer Chris Roberts dismissed the claims that Distingeration was not a miserable record and, noting the tone of the album and its lack of melodicism ("You'll be lucky to find a tune on here. Or a gag".), he commented that "The Cure have almost invisibly stopped making pop records". Roberts summarised the album as "challenging and claustrophobic, often poignant, often tedious. It's nearly surprising". Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic, who gave the record a four and a half star rating out of five, applauded the band by saying "The Cure's gloomy soundscapes have rarely sounded so alluring, however, and the songs – from the pulsating, ominous "Fascination Street" to the eerie, string-laced "Lullaby" – have rarely been so well-constructed and memorable." Erlewine went on to praise Disintegration for being "darkly seductive," and "a hypnotic, mesmerizing record." Music reviewer Robert Christgau gave the album a grade of C+, citing most of his displeasure as a result of Robert Smith's depressing nature: "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." "As with so many stars," Christgau continued, "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." Pitchfork praised the record, admitting "Disintegration stands unquestionably as Robert Smith's magnum opus." The review went on to note that "scant few albums released in the 1980s can boast an opener as grand as 'Plainsong', the most breathtaking, shimmering anthem the band ever recorded."

Since its 1989 release, Disintegration has been included in numerous "Best Of" lists. Rolling Stone placed the record at number 326 on their 2003 compilation of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". The magazine's German counterpart, however, placed Disintegration at number 184 on the same list. The album was considered to be the "Best Album[s] of 1989" by Melody Maker, 17th on Q magazine's "80 Best Albums of the 80s", and 38th on Pitchfork's "Best Albums of the 80s".

Music

Disintegration is epitomised by a significant usage of synthesizers and keyboards, slow, "droning" guitar progressions and Smith's introspective vocals. "Plainsong", the album's opener, "set the mood for Disintegration perfectly," according to journalist Jeff Apter by "unravelling ever so slowly in a shower of synths and guitars, before Smith steps up to the mic, uttering snatches of lyrics ('I'm so cold') as if he were reading from something as sacred as the Dead Sea Scroll." Smith felt the song was a perfect opener for the record, describing it as "very lush, very orchestral." The album's third track, "Closedown", contains layers of keyboard texture complemented with a slow, gloomy guitar line. The track was written by Smith as a means to list his physical and artistic shortcomings. Despite the dark mood present throughout Disintegration, "Lovesong" was an upbeat track that became a hit in the United States. Ned Raggett of Allmusic noted the difference from other songs: "the Simon Gallup/ Boris Williams rhythm section create a tight, serviceable dance groove, while Smith and Porl Thompson add further guitar fills and filigrees as well, adding just enough extra bite to the song. Smith himself delivers the lyric softly, with gentle passion.

Much of the album made use of a considerable amount of guitar effects. "Prayers For Rain", a depressing track (Raggett noted: "the phrase 'savage torpor' probably couldn't better be applied anywhere else than to this song") sees Thompson and Smith "treating their work to heavy duty flanging, delay, backwards-run tapes and more to set the slow, moody crawl of the track. Others, like the title track, are notable for "Smith's commanding lead guitar lines [that are] scaled to epic heights while at the same time buried in the mix, almost as if they're trying to burst from behind the upfront rhythm assault. Roger O'Donnell's keyboards add both extra shade and melody, while Smith's singing is intentionally delivered in a combination of cutting clarity and low resignation, at times further distorted with extra vocal treatments.

While Disintegration is mainly made up of somber tracks—along with "Lovesong"—"Pictures Of You" and "Lullaby" were equally popular for their accessibility. Smith wanted to create a balance on the album by including songs that would create an equilibrium with those that were unpleasant. "Pictures Of You", while upbeat, contained poignant lyrics ("screamed at the make-believe/screamed at the sky/you finally found all your courage to let it all go") with a "two-chord cascade of synthesizer slabs, interweaving guitar and bass lines, passionate singing and romantic lyrics." "Lullaby" is composed of what Apter calls "sharp stabs" of rhythmic guitar chords with Smith whispering the words. The premise for the song came to Smith after remembering lullabies his father would sing him when he could not sleep: "[My father] would always make them up. There was always a horrible ending. They would be something like 'sleep now, pretty baby or you won't wake up at all.'"

Track listing

1. "Plainsong" – 5:12
2. "Pictures of You" – 7:24
3. "Closedown" – 4:16
4. "Lovesong" – 3:29
5. "Last Dance" – 4:42
6. "Lullaby" – 4:08
7. "Fascination Street" – 5:16
8. "Prayers for Rain" – 6:05
9. "The Same Deep Water as You" – 9:19
10. "Disintegration" – 8:18
11. "Homesick" – 7:06
12. "Untitled" – 6:30

The tracks "Last Dance" and "Homesick" are not included on the vinyl version of the record.

Personnel

• Robert Smith – Vocals, electric guitar, keyboard, bass guitar, production, engineering
• Simon Gallup – Bass guitar, keyboard
• Porl Thompson – Guitar
• Boris Williams – Drums
• Roger O'Donnell – Keyboard
• Lol Tolhurst – Credited for "other instruments", but later revealed to have no involvement.
• Dave Allen – Production, engineering
• Richard Sullivan – Engineering
• Roy Spong – Engineering

Chart positions

Album

Singles

References

• Apter, Jeff Never Enough: The Story Of The Cure. Omnibus Press.

Notes