Having reached a state of maturity, in their eighth album The Cure experiment with a dark and yet alluring atmosphere that wraps its spellbinding thread around desire, unreciprocated romance, break ups and tainted love. Gloomier than The Cure's pop release 'Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me' of 1987, yet more pop than The Cure's early eighties releases 'Faith' and Pornography', 'Disintegration' stands somewhere in the middle. Full of teenage romanticism, melancholic angst, and creative gloom, 'Disintegration' is a pop album that treats torment as a finest art.
'Closedown' and 'Prayers For Rain' drift on layers of keyboards anchored by gloomy guitar progressions. 'Closedown' is a soaring track, reflecting Smith's physical and artistic shortcomings, while 'Prayers for Rain' is an ultimately depressing track that echoes the definition of a rainy day melancholy.
'Lovesong' is the only top ten hit of the album and maybe the more complex of all tracks. Despite being an upbeat groove, with dance guitar riffs and rhythm sections, 'Lovesong' is, in effect, dark and restrained, an open show of emotion. It's a straightforward love song, which, unlike Smith's ability to reveal affection, it manages to shake the audiences. Written as a wedding present for his wife-to-be, 'Lovesong' simply proves that straightforward emotions can achieve much more than indistinct and ambiguous language.
'Lullaby' is an atmospheric track with rhythmic guitar chords that anchor Smith's whispering lyrics. Practically a frightening dread that describes a picture of being eaten alive by a spider man, 'Lullaby' portrays Smith's nightmares from his childhood when his father used to sing him lullabies with horrible endings.
'Fascination Street' comes as a happier, shinier, yet bass-lined, caterwauled track anchored with Smith's typical alley cat voice singing of corrupt Bourbon Street in New Orleans. After 1.5 minute instrumental intro, the track enters at a fast-pace, with simple, repetitive lyrics and Smith's voice building in intensity as the track strides to the grand finale, giving one last shout before toppling into a sleepy roan.
The title track, 'Disintegration' is a hymn in betrayed love and a typical example of the musical style of the album that drifts on ubiquitous keyboards, repetitive guitar progressions, complex drum patterns and depressing lyrics that are so intricate, and yet so simple. If one has a heart cannot but be touched as Robert Smith sings "I leave you with photographs, pictures of trickery, stains on the carpet and stains on the memory, songs about happiness murmured in dreams, when we both of us knew, how the end always is...'
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