Pornography Review

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(More customer reviews)Unquestionably this was Robert Smith's darkest hour. This 8-track release is oppressive in its bleak attack. It deserves 5 stars due to its sheer brilliance and originally; nothing ever sounded like this before or since. But for newcomers reading these great reviews be forewarned - I did not use the word oppressive by accident. Every moment of 'Pornography' is black, despeairing and tortured. If you are on the verge of suicide this could be a rope thrown to save you or it could be a mack truck with a plow on the front driving you further over the edge. If you can get past that then what you will find is a stunningly creative album that creates some of the most sepulchral music ever heard.
The band at this time was stripped down to 3 members: Smith on vocals and guitar and keyboards, Simon Gallup on bass, and Lawrnece Tolhurst on drums. Strangely it may have been Tolhurst's lack of musical talent (an issue that would later get him fired) that created much of the atmosphere. The drumming is very flat and mechanical sounding creating an absolutely dead feel throughout; even sound dies as the stick hits the skins. Smith's voacl sound desperate and often deranged filled with lurid, bizzare imagery. Gallup's bass is potent and overwhelming in a style that only he could pull off.
My favorites are "One Hundred Years" with its sense of desperation and unrequited longing. "A Short Term Effect" is saturated with doom as the characters of the song try to laugh in the face of what may come, "Something small falls out of your mouth and we all laugh". "A Strange Day" is angst-ridden but with soemthing bordering on beauty buried deep within. Finally the title track is an complete descent into madness, as the closer on an album like this should be.
One of the great black-to-the-core albums ever and arguably the darkest. The Sisters of Mercy came close with the rare 'Reptile House EP', but that work is more of an exploration of drug-addicted frustration where this is just suffocating hopelessness.

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PornographyThe Cure Label: Elektra / WEA Release Date: 10/25/1990 1 One Hundred Years - 6:402 A Short Term Effect - 4:223 The Hanging Garden - 4:334 Siamese Twins - 5:295 The Figurehead - 6:156 A Strange Day - 5:047 Cold - 4:268 Pornography - 6:27

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Diver Down Review

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(More customer reviews)The title of the review says it all. Diver Down is the great overlooked Van Halen album. In my opinion it's one of their best albums but for some reason it's just overlooked by everyone. It was a great followup to an even greater album, Fair Warning. Diver Down for the most part is half cover songs and half originals with some instrumentals thrown in. I'll review the cover songs first. The first cover on the album is of the Kinks' classic Where Have All the Good Times Gone?, the Mighty Van Halen's version blows the original away. The only hit from this album was the cover of Roy Orbison's (OH)Pretty Woman, they did a great version of this song also. They also cover the classic song Dancing in the Streets, a lot of people say this is their worst song but I thin they did an excellent job on the song, David Lee Roth sounds great. The last two covers on the album are strange ones indeed, the first one is called Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)it is a very slow ragtime sounding song, it features Jan Van Halen (Eddie and Aelx's father) on clarinet, then the song that closes the album is Happy Trails, the VH boys do a great song on this song also, the background vocals are great and Dave's voice fits the song. So that's the story on the cover songs, now the first original is called Hang em High. This song is typical early Van Halen and it's amazing. Great guitar riff and eccentric drumming by Alex. Cathedral is a short Eddie instrumental, then it goes into Secrets. It is a good song, very underrated. Little Guitars is without a doubt the best song on the album, and no doubt one of Van Halen's best. The song is very catchy and poppy. The last original on the album is The Full Bug, this is also one of the best Van Halen songs ever. There is a short acoustic intro before kicking into a great rocker. Everything about this album is great, any fan of great music should pick this up, don't listen to what everybody says, and don't overlook this masterpiece

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Japanese pressing. Reissue of 1982 original release has been remastered and comes in a standard jewel case. Warner. 2005.--This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

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Signals Review

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(More customer reviews)For a band that has encompassed a huge collection of albums, spawning 3 decades, and seen several musical trends and revolutions, Signals is still the album I find myself going back to again and again. I'd also like to say, that for purchasers of this disc the Re-master (In comparison of the disc that is not), makes Niel's drums sound a little more crisp, and the album is a bit louder and has erased some of the softness of the recording. That being said on with the review....
I won't go around echoing the same comments that I have heard here from time to time. The departure from the radio friendly greatness of the last 2 albums, the flat keyboards and poor mixing of Alexs guitar, the absence of 7-10 minute opuses/concepts, the dropping of Terry Brown. All this has been talked about and leaves all those hard core Rush fans (many who seem to borderline be obsessed on the level of Star Trek geeks), too much to fight over.
What I will say is that to me this is an album that distinctly captures a mood and an era that doesn't exist anymore. The snythns have this demonic dark underpinning, and for the first time there were many songs on the album (for Rush) that had a distinct dark brooding theme to them. Subdivsions doesn't just hint at the drudgery and disspair of teenage pressure, it's litteraly hammered home in Geddy's verse of "conform or be cast out", as if he had to spell it out for the listeners.
The Weapon, while being a great moody piece for Niel to shine hammers home the possible apocalypse, and Loosing It easily needs no introduction with it's self-titled moniker, and Ben Minks violin solo. It isn't so much that Ben's violin sings as much as it literraly weeps and cries.
Even the glorious Analog Kid which is upbeat in mood and lyric, still sounds as if there is a lingering pathos that just sounds unreal when the sudden abrupt chorus hits of "you move me, you move me."
For good measure there are other songs that aren't dark at all, (New World Man, Chemistry, Digital Man), but there is an overhanging cloud that seems to exist over every song.
This to me is the greatness of this album. THe tracks and all the music prowess of the members combined with the early 80's new wave snyth mood going on, produced a dark complicated album that somehow touches me individualy like no other album. There had been dark themes such as say 2112 but it's a story, Witch Hunt is a common concept and brooding too, but somehow the bleakness and grandeur of this album speaks to me "personally" for the first time for a Rush album.
The band has still made great phenomenal albums (and even made a bleaker sounding album in Grace Under Pressure), but this is the one that speaks to me. It's like a perfect conversation with your best friend you haven't seen in a long time.
There is no album ever that even sounds like this. Do enjoy.

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Japanese only paper sleeve SHM pressing. The SHM-CD [Super High Material CD] format features enhanced audio quality through the use of a special polycarbonate plastic. Using a process developed by JVC and Universal Music Japan discovered through the joint companies' research into LCD display manufacturing SHM-CDs feature improved transparency on the data side of the disc allowing for more accurate reading of CD data by the CD player laser head. SHM-CD format CDs are fully compatible with standard CD players. Warner. 2009.--This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

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