Gothtober-Looking Back in Anger at The Cure's "Pornography"

I am surprised that I have not gone back to review this album since it's one of my favorite Cure albums. It's their darkest also making it their heaviest. If you have read other reviews by me, you know I often bring up the fact that it's hard to be heavy without capturing darkness. This album finds Smith reaching deep into himself to pull out the most depressed parts of his tortured soul to set it to music. The opening track might be their best song. It is powerful and sonically dense. Perhaps the most goth song ever. 

"Short Term Effect' is upbeat compared to "One Hundred Years". It's still bleak but not as overwhelmingly desolate as the previous song. There are some wonderful guitar tones here/ I skipped over "Faith" as I have already reviewed it, I think the depth of growth when comparing the two albums is this one finds a more surreal expansion of guitar tones. "The Hanging Garden" is an underrated classic that displays the intensity the band is capable of and Smith offers wonderful lyrics. The video was shot in an ornate cemetery which makes me wonder if that is what this song is about, finding solace in the stone statues. 

"Siamese Twins" works off a droning riff that showcases Smith at his dismal best. The vocals of this song are more abstract as it wanders into the midnight fog. Not as hooky or driving as the other songs so far. The bass line to "Figuredhead " is heavy enough to belong in a doom metal song. Smith's voice carries a pained desperation.  "A Strange Day"  has a throb that moves like a storm cloud with a softer melody hanging like a memory from it.  "Cold" is even darker and heavier with the drums taking on a tribal pound, It's the most classic goth sound ever. The poetry of his lyrics is especially haunting on this one. "Your name like ice/ into my heart" is a great line. The use of manipulated samples on the title track that closes the album was an influence on industrial music.  The way the drums come in Trent Reznor took notes on when making 'The Downward Spiral".  Smith's vocals are more of an abstract narrative, as he is not guiding a melody into this chaos.  This of course gets a 10 as it is one of the best albums ever recorded.

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