Review Summary: Does it really matter if we all die?
"Pornography", by The Cure.
Before we start this reveiw, picture your veiw of what "emo" is. If it is of a fourteen-year-old boy wearing tight pants and a black band t-shirt slitting his wrists, you are most likely a sheep who follows the rediculous description of what emo is. When I picture emo, i think of dark, sad, and depressing music that that boy you pictured could possibly be listening to. For example, that boy could be listening to "Pornography", by The Cure.
"Pornography", when listened to, seems to come off as something like a narrative to a funeral. The opening song, "One Hundred Years", opens with a rolling drum beat, and a mysterious gutiar part. And there is no better way to lyricly start off a album meant to create a depressing atmosphere than with the line "Does it really matter if we all die?".
The third track, and first single off the album, "The Hanging Garden", is quite possibly the strangest and saddest song from the record. It opens up with fast paced tom drumming and a smoothly rolling baseline. The lyrics depict a quiet "garden", full of dying animals. IT is quite possbile my favorite song off of the album. It adds alot more for that boy to cry about.
The sixth track, "A Strange Day", greets the listener with a mysterious synthesizer, and continues into the drums and bass. I must also mention the trend created throughout the album with the openings of the songs. First some in the drums, then the bass. The track would be quite obscure if it werent for the instrumental choruses. The guitar part is absolutely mesmerizingly catchy. It ends with echoey vocals from Mr. Smith saying the songs title.
The title track on the cd does a great job of summing the whole thing up at the end. Its strange, its confusing, and its sad. It opens up with what sounds to be a voice played backwards. (I personally tried to reverse the song to hear the voice, but couldnt pick up much.) There is the same drum beat echoing throughout the track, much like the beat from "The Hanging Garden". Throughout the song we hear strange sounds beneath the music, most likely more voices backwards. The track ends exactly how it started, only the voices sound like a womans.
This album is considered to be one of the most important goth albums of the 80s. It has inspired much more to come from music, and The Cure themselves. So next time your friend uses the word "emo", try to think of more than just that boy, dressed in black, sitting in the corner of a classroom. Maybe you could think of the first line in "One Hundred Years". Maybe you could remember the disturbing lyrics from "The Hanging Garden". Or you could try to think up what those voices in the title track could be saying. Next time you see that dude I described in the introduction, tell him to go to the record store and pick up some "Pornography".
Reccomended Tracks:
One Hundred Years
The Hanging Garden
A Strange Day
