![Pornography [Deluxe Edition]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0007XT8AS.01.MZZZZZZZ.jpg)
Release Date: 26 April, 2005
Audio CD
Tracks
- One Hundred Years
- A Short Term Effect
- Hanging Garden
- Siamese Twins
- Figurehead
- A Strange Day
- Cold
- Pornography
- Break
- Demise
- Temptation
- Figurehead
- Hanging Garden
- One Hundred Years
- Airl1ock: Soundtrack
- Cold
- A Strange Day
- Pornography
- All Mine
- A Short Term Effect
- Siamese Twins
- Temptation Two
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Rating 4.5
Listen to the drumsA few years back I bought the original CD release of Pornography, to see if there was anything beyond the tracks from Staring at the Sea I liked. I played through it and forgot about, nothing special. So when I bought this re-release (along with the simultaneous rereleases of Faith and Seventeen Seconds) I wasn't expecting much.
Boy was I wrong! This album comes alive with the remasters, just listen to the drums. I think of this as the "angry drum album", because that's what it is. For those who didn't like Pornography, listen to this album at night while driving in your car. Focus on the drums, let them hammer into you. Then you'll get it.
One Hundred Years sounds about like it does on the Paris concert album, and the drums beat into you as they always do on The Hanging Garden. A real treat is The Figurehead, most familiar to owners of the Paris live album. The drums are just stunning on this one, as Robert's vocals wail on. A Strange Day has an eerie beat reminiscent of early eighties pop in general, but there is that devastating drum again. Finally I love Cold, with a dread organ playing backdrop to the menacing drumbeat.
The bonus CD has some interesting oddities and some really excellent tracks. It opens with two "mood" demos, Break and Demise, which give you a feel for what went into this album. A real standout is the studio demo of The Figurehead. The arrangements are the same, but spare and without frills. It's good enough to be on my playlist along with the other versions of the song.
The early version of The Hanging Garden is a great illustration of just what went into Robert Smith's songs. Somewhere along this bland song he said toss it, let rip out something completely different with a hammering drum beat. The live version of Cold is a treat, and sounds great. The live Short Term Effect is so clean I mistook it for a studio jam.
The album sleeve art and font are distorted and hard to make out, as was obviously the intent. It sums up the mood of the album certainly. (Note that the fonts are different from the two previous album reissues, so this is all deliberate.) If you heard Pornography before and dismissed it, get this remastered edition and hear it as it was meant to be heard, with the drums hammering into your brain!Hear the Depth and Nuance for the 1st TimeThe question for fans will obviously be, "Do I need to buy this remaster or am I all set with the original?" Unfortunately folks you need to reach for the wallet again. I think that enough has been done here to warrant spending your hard-earned cash... who are we kidding - you don't work that hard. Not only have a load of demos and rarities been included, but the remastering has brought out a new level of depth and nuance that you just couldn't hear before.
Where the original is muddy, the remaster is crystal clear. Of course, one could argue that the muddy production actually helped to create the dense wall of sound that made this album so intimidating in the first place. Well that is true to be sure. However, that's part of the amazing thing about this. In all of the clean-up effort, the opaqueness of the original is never lost. You will still feeel as though you are lost in a forest of despair; the difference now is that you'll be able to tell the difference between the fog and the cobwebs instead of sensing just one hazy mass of white gauze. You can hear how each synth bar decays with time. You can discern the subtle variances between several different electronic string instrument tones that may coexist at the same moment. The effects on the guitar and bass jump off the page now.
Basically either of the upgrades (the new tracks and the enhanced sound) makes the purchase worthwhile. Old fans have no choice. And new fans might as well buy this version as opposed to the original anyway. To heck with freedom of choice - do what you are destined to do and buy, or rebuy as the case may be.
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I've tacked on my review of the original here at the end to decribe the music for new fans...
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, despairing 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 vocals 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 something 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 greatest 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.A Prayer for Something BetterI experienced Pornography in three different phases. First, the original 1982 release(which is still great). Secondly, on the Cure's phenomenal Trilogy dvd, which features the band playing the entire album live, along with Disintegration and Bloodflowers.Thencomes along this wonderful remaster this year. While I can appreciate the rawness of the original release, I was hoping for a remaster(along with most Cure fans I imagine). Not only do you get a new feel for the album, you also get a lot of rarities on disc 2. My favorite songs include One Hundred Years, A Strange Day, and Cold. But this album begs to be played in its entirety. A must for any Cure fan. |
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