Disintegration |
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Released: May 2, 1989 Peak: 12 US, 3 UK, 22 CN, 9 AU Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, 0.1 UK, 4.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: goth rock |
Tracks:Song Title [time] (date of single release, chart peaks)
* Bonus track not on original release Total Running Time: 72:11 The Players:
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Rating: 4.386 out of 5.00 (average of 23 ratings)
Quotable:“The culmination of all the musical directions the Cure were pursuing over the course of the ‘80s.” – Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic.comAwards:(Click on award to learn more).
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The Cure at Their Peak?“Every classic band has that one album that presents them at their apogee” PM and “Disintegration is undeniably the one” PM for The Cure. They “were operating at some kind of peak level right about this time in their history.” AD They “perfected their vision” PM and “reached the peak of their popularity with the crawling, darkly seductive Disintegration.” AZ This “moody masterpiece is a gorgeous sonic bath of lush soundscapes and lovesick nostalgia.” EW’12 “It’s a hypnotic, mesmerizing record,” AMG “a pop album realized on an epic scale.” AZTheir “best and most ambitious record was created by Robert Smith in an attempt to distance himself away from the band’s more upbeat and pop-driven earlier numbers.” CQ “According to the kids on South Park, this is the best album ever made. According to many depressive Eighties-minded kids, it’s the only album ever made.” RS A Refinement of What Came BeforeDisintegration “is essentially a refinement of everything that preceded it,” TB “the culmination of all the musical directions the Cure were pursuing over the course of the ‘80s.” AMG It retains “the gloomy lyricism that made The Cure one of the best-loved cult bands of the 1980s.” TB “Robert Smith’s voice shakes like milk as he makes adolescent angst sound so wonderfully, wonderfully pretty.” RS Other “Cure musical trademarks, such as the lengthy introductions, are taken to glorious extremes here.” ADThe album is “as dark and icy as” PM “the band’s gloomier, darker sound” CQ on their fourth album, Pornography. However, it is also “as instantly memorable and immediate” CQ as Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me by adding “a heightened pop sensibility” TB by “expanding the latent arena rock sensibilities” AZ that “peppered” that album. AZ Inspiration for the WritingSmith wrote Disintegration in a “psychedelic-fueled haze of depression.” CQ “It catapulted Robert Smith and his band to new levels of stardom and crystallized the core characteristics of their music: dark, emotional and meditative.” PM It “is an expansive and rich album that reflects the darkness of Smith’s mindset at the time, but still with a romantic core full of yearning about his longtime partner, Mary Poole, ever the subject of his most passionate songs.” CQThe Songs“Here are songs of remembrance that, through their deep candor, transcend the individual level to explore universal longings and fears…Anyone who has experienced the joy and sorrow – especially the sorrow – of love will find his or her deepest sentiments, noble and petty alike, echoed poetically here.” AZ“Each of the 12 songs is its own respective showcase for the group’s sprawling, meandering intros that induce a wistful haze before rewarding your patience with Smith’s unmistakable voice.” PM “The Cure’s gloomy soundscapes have rarely sounded so alluring.” AMG The album is “comprised almost entirely of epics like the soaring, icy Pictures of You,” AMG “a sprawling, eight-minute epic that epitomizes the band’s excellence with sparkling instrumentation accompanied with the passion of Smith’s lyrics.” CQ That and other “long mood pieces…develop slowly around the listener.” AZ Prayers for Rain and The Same Deep Water As You are “the sob-fests their titles suggest.” RD They are “rightly placed next to each other on the album, almost like a single fifteen minute long suite…The best movie soundtrack ever to a movie that’s yet to be made.” AD “On top of moody guitar tones courtesy of Porl Thompson and Smith, we also have a goth-rock album that features two of the best basslines in the history of recorded music: Simon Gallup’s melodic performance on” PM “the pulsating, ominous Fascination Street,” AMG “a classic Cure track if ever there was one.” AD That song “and the driving momentum of the title track stand among the Cure’s finest moments.” PM The “romantically ravaged” RD Plainsong is “an intense, atmospheric number that feels like the fall of a sonic monsoon.” CQ “Apart from subtly differing tempos and moods musically, it’s the lyrics that really hold this album together.” AD “The lyrical focus is intensely personal throughout, and, with the exception of” AZ “the concise and utterly charming Love Song” AMG, “the record’s most upbeat track,” CQ “the mood is overwhelmingly dark and brooding.” AZ “This is exactly what Goths called romance in the ‘80s.” AD The song was “a wedding gift from Smith to his fiancée Mary.” RD – “to the eerie, string-laced Lullaby – have rarely been so well-constructed and memorable.” AMG “Anchored by complex drum patterns, the layered guitars, soaring bass lines, and rich keyboards blend to create a lush, evocative soundscape that captures the ear immediately; and for all its length, the album is never boring.” AZ “On Closedown, Smith’s existential crisis at turning 30 seems the most apparent: ‘I’m running out of time/ I’m out of step and closing down/ And never sleep for wanting hours.’ If only we could all churn out a masterpiece like Disintegration whenever we’re faced with the horrors of mortality.” CQ Notes:In 2010, a deluxe three-CD edition of this album added a disc of outtakes and demos and another disc of a live performance of the entire album at London’s Wembley Stadium in 1989. |
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First posted 5/2/2012; last updated 8/26/2026. |
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