The Cure album created at a time when Robert Smith was “at his worst”
The very nature of punk as a trunk from which countless branches of different genres have grown is that it demands authenticity. While some musical genres revel in theatrics and costuming, punk preferred to encourage genuine emotion and no-holds-barred expression. This counted for the myriad of sub-genres it would provide. The original post-punk trio of The Cure were experiencing growing pains as they struggled to find their identity.
Transitioning out of the 1970s and into the ’80s, synthesisers and drum machines became increasingly important to the band’s sound, as did Robert Smith’s more dour lyrical observations as the two combined to create atmospheric work that would eventually typify their careers. Their second album, Seventeen Seconds, took on haunting soundscapes that divulged from the guitar rock of Three Imaginary Boys, and the band were falling down the rabbit hole of guitar effects, keyboard swirls, and doom-laden imagery.
It all reached breaking points as the band regrouped to record their fourth album, Pornography. Although it stylistically carried on the moody atmosphere established on Seventeen Seconds and Faith, an increasingly fatalistic mindset took over as well. It might seem par for the course for fans of The Cure looking back today, but it’s hard not to let the constant moody work infiltrate your own sense of well-being. From the very first lines of ‘One Hundred Years’ (“It doesn’t matter if we all die”), Pornography sounded like a direct transmission from Hell.
Constantly writing about death, destruction, and depression is enough to push anyone close to the edge, and Smith acknowledged that even some temporary psychosis might have taken over at this point. “Seventeen Seconds was the most personal record that we’ve ever done, strangely enough,” Smith explained to Spin back in 1987. However, the following record was a new step: “Lyrically, content-wise. Pornography is just a very odd record that was made by a very odd group. I don’t think I would recognise myself around that time.”
Smith has often been keen to lament the struggles of being in a band with such a strong fanbase and the demands that come with it. However, for this record, he admitted the issues were not about the band and their often-fraught interpersonal relationships but his own issues. He continued: “I was undergoing a lot of mental stress. But it had nothing to do with the group, it just had to do with what I was like, my age and things. I think I got to my worst round about Pornography. Looking back and getting other people’s opinions of what went on, I was a pretty monstrous sort of person at that time.”
Despite Smith’s protestations to the contrary, later reports would suggest that band relations were at an all-time low, drug and alcohol use was rampant, and, to top it all off, Smith’s state of mind was deteriorating quickly. The music reflected this, with repeated jagged guitar phrases and demonic imagery providing not a single second of levity. There was nowhere to go after Pornography, and Smith knew it.
“I had two choices at the time, which were either completely giving in [committing suicide] or making a record of it and getting it out of me,” Smith explained in the book Never Enough: The Story of The Cure. “I really thought that was it for the group. I had every intention of signing off. I wanted to make the ultimate ‘fuck off’ record, and then sign off [the band].”
In a way, that is what happened: bassist Simon Gallup left immediately following the album’s release, and Smith decided to take a break to focus on his health. He had taken the band into a darker space than ever before, and a reaction was in the offing to this constant dive into the abyss. When he recovered, Smith decided that a complete stylistic makeover was required in order for The Cure to survive. Singles like ‘Let’s Go To Bed’ and ‘The Lovecats’ took on a far more playful tone, and Smith began to embrace pop music as The Cure’s future, managing to sugarcoat his still dark lyricism in a more palatable outer shell. The downtrodden nature of Pornography wouldn’t resurface until years later, a time when Smith combined the best parts of the band’s lighter and darker sides to create Disintegration.
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