The cure’s fourth album Pornography is one that could only exist within the specific context of its creation. While this could be said about many albums, the apathetic and gothic aesthetics of the album were greatly informed by the social and cultural context within Britain at the time, and the actions of and dynamic within the band leading up to the strained 3 weeks of studio time, in which the band recorded their most gothic and harrowing release to date.
One Hundred Years
The first track from Pornography immediately sets the apathetic and gothic tones for the album to come. The track starts off with a drum machine, which Lol Tolhurst States in his book ‘goth’, was a DR-55 ran through a bass amp and guitar amp. Parts of the drums such as the kick and snare were doubled by real drums played by Lol, recorded in a large cavernous room in the studio to capture the iconic reverb that’s now synonymous with goth. The bass and guitar enter, with the bass playing a C and a B note while the guitar plays a lead line in harmonic minor, contributing to the dark and eerie sound. The first line of the song is ‘it doesn’t matter if we all die’, reflecting the mindset of the band in the studio. For context, the band had been playing around 200 shows a year with little time to do anything else, leading them to all feel musically burnt out. In conjunction with this the band were drinking heavily and regularly abusing drugs, and Robert Smith later stated that at the time of recording he felt he only had two options, ‘either completely giving in or making a record of it and getting it out of me’. The album had no real single (with strange days begrudgingly released by the label) and was seen as too dark to be commercially viable. This was totally intended by the band, with Robert Smith saying that the album was meant to be the ‘ultimate fuck off record’, and he initially planned the end the band after its release.
Cold
Cold begins with a cello riff, played by Smith with the cello on his lap like a guitar. This echos the DIY punk ethos that the cure started on in the late 70s, which links to greater cultural themes within the UK at the time. In 1982 at the time of the recording Margaret Thatcher was prime minister, bringing her own brand of ultra-conservatism to post war Britain. The same month that the recording sessions took place, the Falklands war began. This greater social context bought a misery to the recording sessions, crucial to the gothic aesthetic. In addition, most of the bands personal relations had disintegrated due to their intensive touring and growing ‘rock band’ status, leaving them to feel isolated and sleeping in the studio. The lyrics ‘curled up like an embryo’ show a vulnerability in the bands work, setting them apart from their musical peers at the time and contributing to the gothic aesthetic of the album. Lol Tolhurst in his book ‘goth’ names this as the most gothic track on the album, and potentially in their entire catalogue, citing drug abuse as one if the focuses of the song.
Context and Aesthetic
Contextually, Pornography was born from the social and personal experiences of the band in the early 80s. The bands personal relations had fallen apart and Simon Gallup the bassist briefly left after the albums supporting tour. The state of the government and post war Britain also heavily influenced the band, bringing apathy to the record in abundance, and the music industries pressure was felt, with the band feeling chastised for not making a lighter more commercial album, as well as a touring schedule that almost broke them. Aesthetically, the album is the gold standard of gothic music. The supporting tour for Pornography was when the band finally accepted their now famous stage style, big messy hair, lipstick, eye shadow and strictly black clothing. The harsher and more robotic synth and drums almost touch on industrial at points and the lyrics reflect the nihilism and depression felt by the band, and more broadly the UK at the time.
references:
Tolhurst, L., 2023. Goth. 1st ed. London: Quercus.