Show Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I think including songs like The Love Cats, or any older Cure, would have ruined the melancholy mood of this concert completely. Obviously he's one of those "you're not a real fan unless you like their old stuff" kinda guys. Well I think the Cure did their best work from Head On the Door through Wish. I mean, their old stuff is awesome too, but in a different way. I've been a long time Cure fan, and Wish is my favorite album, and since this concert took place shortly after Wish was released, you could only expect them to focus mainly on those songs. Wish's lyrics are amazing if you've ever bothered to really read through them, so how can you criticize songs like From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, Cut or End? They're great songs. In fact, I think the song that could have been cut from here was Friday I'm In Love; I've just never been a fan. Replace that with Apart and it's a perfect concert. The biggest improvement is in A Night Like This---the guitar solo instead of the sax solo makes it a whole new song. If you're like me and Wish and Disintegration are your favorite Cure albums, you owe it to yourself to check out this live performance, it rocks.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Show

The band's 1993 live album with four bonus tracks that appeared separately in the U.S. on the 'Sideshow' EP: 'Open', 'The Walk', 'Fascination Street' and 'Let's Go To Bed'. 18 tracks total, also featuring 'High', 'Pictures Of You', 'Lullaby', 'Just Like Heaven', 'A Night Like This', 'Friday I'm In Love' and 'Inbetween Days'. Double slimline jewel case. 1993 Fiction release. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Click here for more information about Show

Pornography Review

Average Reviews:

(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.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Pornography

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

Click here for more information about Pornography