Anyone only familiar with Cure songs like "Friday I'm In Love" and "Just Like Heaven" will be taken aback by this unsettling album, possibly the most depressing in the history of popular music.
This is beyond "goth", this
is pure darkness and depression. One could argue that this album leans
too hard to the "mope" side of things, and if that's you, you have a
point, but what separates this album from other depressing music (other
goth albums, doom metal, etc...) is that the mope is extremely
convincing. You can totally feel how big-haired vocalist Robert Smith
was on a depressive streak of the highest degree during the writing
process of this now-classic record. This is most apparent on the last
two tracks; the tear inducing "Cold" and the downright scary title track
"Pornography", a track which one should under no means be advised to
listen to right before going to bed. Those are hardly the only standouts
on this album, just listen to the harrowing opening track "100 Years"
with it's opening line "It doesn't matter if we all die" and you'll be
compelled to listen to the rest of this album for sure. Either that, or
quickly remove it from you're stereo system due to being too creeped out
to go forward. One unexpected aspect of this album is that there is
some definite variety among the songs here, anyone thinking that this album
is a monotonous wrist-slitting fest would be sorely mistaken. Here, you
have the up-tempo "Hanging Garden" with it's tribal drumming as well as
the swirling, dreamy "A Strange Day", and don't forget the plaintive
minimalism of "Siamese Twins".
One complaint I do have about this album
is the drummer Laurence Tolhurst's lack of creativity on the drum kit. Not a single song on this entire album has a rhythm change
whatsoever, every song contains one beat and one beat only for the duration of the entire song with only the occasional crash of the cymbal. Fortunately, the
guitars change frequently over these beats, enough to avoid total
monotony as I mentioned above. Still, this is a classic of post-punk
music, and If you're into the dark side of things then this album will
certainly not disappoint, and perhaps it will make you an entirely
darker being.
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