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Pornography [Deluxe Edition] | ![Pornography [Deluxe Edition]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41DAH62V3JL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Artist: The Cure
Label: Elektra / Wea
Category: Music
List Price: $24.98
Buy New: $17.83
You Save: $7.15 (29%)
New (20) Used (7) from $16.55
Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 4792
Format: Extra Tracks, Original Recording Remastered
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 5 x 0.7
MPN: 74684
UPC: 081227468422
EAN: 0081227468422
ASIN: B0007XT8AS
Release Date: April 26, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: New in shrinkwrap. Ships within one business day.
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| Tracks:
Disc 1
| • | One Hundred Years | | • | A Short Term Effect | | • | Hanging Garden | | • | Siamese Twins | | • | Figurehead | | • | A Strange Day | | • | Cold | | • | Pornography |
Disc 2
| • | 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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| Editorial Reviews:
Album Description
Originally a Goth-flavored post-punk outfit, the Cure evolved into one of the truly seminal bands of the '80s, and ultimately one of modern rock's most celebrated and influential acts. Guided by creative visionary Robert Smith, the Cure's signature sound balances a dreamy pop savvy with a dark, brooding majesty and fuses superbly crafted, literate songs with a feverish emotional intensity. The band's early catalog-newly remastered and expanded wtih a wealth of rarities-is a series of masterpieces that laid the groundwork for their phenomenal and enduring popularity.
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Harrowing Masterpiece - Quinessential Goth-Rock September 12, 2008
Rich Latta (Albuquerque, NM - Land of Entitlement)
PORNOGRAPHY is the culmination of the Cure's descent into the abyss (first wave) and one of the best goth-rock albums of all time. It's dark, foreboding, eerie and depressing yet strangely beautiful. The drum sound is tribal and bass heavy, the guitars range from moody to disturbingly hallucinatory and the lyrics are bleak and cryptic. In my old tour book from the KISS ME tour, Cure mastermind Robert Smith reveals that while he can appreciate eroticism he abhors pornography. In this light, pornography is miserable and ugly, thus a fitting title for the album.
BREAKDOWN:
"One Hundred Years" - Casting an apocalyptic shadow of impending doom and destruction, the opening track is super-intense - "Over and over we die one after the other."
"A Short Term Effect" - A weird, gloomy track with strange guitar effects, vocal manipulations and a wavering beat.
"The Hanging Garden" - With relentless, pounding bass and drums and spiraling guitars, this is a gorgeously gloomy song and worthy single.
"Siamese Twins" - a slower song, beautifully morbid and full of loathing.
"The Figurehead" - A bleak, depressing song of fear and isolation with a merciless military drum beat.
"A Strange Day" - offers a lone ray of hope through the murky desolation of PORNOGRAPHY via escapism. One of the few Cure songs to feature a guitar solo without any other instruments - the segment is intended to represent being instantly hit with the memory of a song. Beautiful.
"Cold" - An absolutely dreary song with icy keyboards and brutal, lethargic drums.
"Pornography" - Sounding like a horrifying torture chamber scene, the final track is a whirlwind of creepy sounds. The muddled voices at the beginning and end of the track are especially freaky. The final line - "I must fight this sickness / Find a cure."
Disk 2
"Break" (Group Home Demo) - A dark and gloomy instrumental sketch featuring an overloaded bass that can be heard rattling a snare drum. Nothing special, really.
"Demise" (studio demo) - another dark and atmospheric instrumental.
"Temptation" (studio demo) - a more driving instrumental. Cool sound but pretty basic.
"The Figurehead" (studio demo) - similar to the final version but inferior. Like most of Disk 2, this track will mostly be of interest to die-hard fans.
"The Hanging Garden" (studio demo) - an airy version with a radically different feel from the album version with different lyrics. Inferior but very interesting; merits repeated listens.
"One Hundred Years" (studio demo) - more cold and mechanical than the final version, due especially to the use of a drum machine. Cool sound.
"Airlock: The Soundtrack" - This is an unsettling 13 minute avant-garde sound collage full of weird noises and a bizarre, off-kilter piano. It provided the soundtrack to a film used to open Cure concerts on the PORNOGRAPHY tour. Intriguing, but likely too repellent for most fans to listen to more than once in a blue moon.
tracks 8 - 13 -- These live tracks sound pretty good considering the fact that they're bootlegs. "Cold" adds some spacey effects that didn't appear on the album while "Pornography" features a recording of those creepy distorted voices. Of particular note is the non-album track "All Mine," previously available on the ultra-rare CURIOSITY cassette. It's a great song, very passionate with bold, angular guitar figures and anguished, longing vocals from Robert Smith. It's quite different from anything else they've done.
"Temptation Two" (studio demo) - a more evolved version of "Temptation" with vocals and a faster tempo. Pretty cool but clearly undeserving of a slot on PORNOGRAPHY.
Yet another excellent deluxe Cure set from Rhino with superior sound, fascinating, rare group photos and an informative essay. This is an absolute must for Cure fans.
One of my top three FAV Cure albums! August 4, 2008
Pug Nutt (SoCal)
Some good reviews here to break down each song...
My summary is simple: Robert Smith demonstrates in this album that he meets the pure definition of a troubadour. Yes, he emerged from a dark place when he wrote these, and I can only imagine what the transformation was like for the band during this time. The lyrics are powerful and the music is passionate. One of the most evocative and listenable albums ever made. Can you tell I love it? :-) This album will not disappoint.
The Cure's high water mark, as far as I've heard June 2, 2008
Ryan O'Beirne (Sykesville, MD USA)
Great album by The Cure, and as my title indicates, I believe it to be their high water mark (in regards to the material I've heard by them, though Disintegration is closely behind this).
The drugs that Robert Smith were taking as well as his depression had reached a breaking point when "Pornography" was made.
The more striking songs on this, as well as their qualities, include:
One Hundred Years - Great lead off track for the album, it introduces the bleak and disparaging mood well, especially with the opening lyric "It doesn't matter if we all die". The drum machine used here is kind of dated, but it keeps the beat well enough, and for some reason, I really can't hear Simon Gallup's bass in this song very well. The somewhat unusual but interesting riff is supported by the icy keyboards that give it a great atmospheric. The lyrics are sung by Robert Smith with intensity, and are full of violent imagery, likely describing a war. After the last line, the guitar riff gets higher in notes as it reaches the song's climax.
Siamese Twins - Nice introduction with the bells, followed by a great tribal sounding drumbeat by Lol Tolhurst, then sparse guitar and a steady bassline come in. The lyrics are interesting in that describe sex as a kind of unwanted and forced task, such as with the lyric of "her legs around me, in the morning I cried". The guitar in this is very atmospheric sounding, and adds to the song's overall mood.
The Figurehead - Well-timed syncopated drums start this song off, while the very dark sounding bassline comes in (my favorite of Gallup's on this album), followed by a great riff by Robert Smith. Really, the guitar on this song is my favorite, it's got a great flowing quality to it, and gives the song a very atmospheric quality. The lyrics are hard to decipher - to me they sound like they're expressing the utter pain and hatred for this Figurehead that has given the narrator such trouble. The lyrics end on a note of defeat and surrender with the final line "I will never be clean again". Overall, this is my favorite song on "Pornography".
A Strange Day - My second favorite song on "Pornography". This one starts out with strange piano-like keyboards which segue into more normal sounding keyboards. The audible bass isn't quite as loud as that in The Figurehead, but it keep the beat well, along with the good drumbeat. The textured guitar of this song gives it a great emotional quality to it, and makes it probably the least dark sounding of the songs on here. The lyrics counterbalance this though - they consist of describing the narrator's movement through the sea in order to commit suicide. Probably one of the most depressing songs here, in the sense of lyrics, but still a great song.
The other songs on the album are great too, like the chaos of the title song, and the organ and opening cello on "Cold".
The second disc consists of some great instrumentals that weren't used for the album, some good demos of the album songs that show the songs in their early phases, and some great live numbers. The real standouts here are the "Airlock: Soundtrack", which gives a great feeling of one actually flying a plane or something, and the closer "Temptation Two", which sounds similar to "Temptation" but a bit more lighter and with some strange noises from Robert Smith.
If you like this one, I highly recommend checking out "Seventeen Seconds" and "Faith", as these really complete the gothic trilogy of the early The Cure albums, and show the development towards the sound present here.
A Masterpiece of Gothic Despair! January 28, 2007
M. Murrell (Arizona, United States)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
There is no question in my mind that Robert Smith's head was in the lowest pit of hell when he wrote this album. The music is filled with anger, hate, sorrow, fear, rage, and despair; all pieces of the darker parts of the human psyche. The listener is taken on a gothic roller-coaster ride through dementia starting with the line "It doesn't matter if we all die" all the way to the vampiric conclusion "I must fight this sickness". Such emotion in this album, and you can't pull away from listening to it. There is something about the way the music is constructed and performed that keeps your ears alert and numbs your mind to the pain that is being expressed. You find yourself understanding the agony of the performers.
This record was way ahead of its time and, until 1989's "Disintigration", was The Cure's greatest achievement in the studio. Every song is great and they flow from one to the next in a perfect order. This album is flawless; a magically written, masterfully performed accomplishment in music.
The Deluxe Edition makes this version a must. The second disc is filled with goodies from this period in The Cure's history. It complements the original album with songs of the same gloomy feeling that the album focuses on.
100 stars If I could..The cures finest moment October 9, 2006
L. Flores
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have been a cure fan since the 8th grade. They are and have been my favorite band. Having digested all of thier albums continously (this band got me through high school, so I support this band very strongly) I can honestly say that Pornography is thier best body of work. Nothing else they did comes close to this...its incredible. Its like being thrown into your worst nightmare and enjoying it. Yeah, Im confused too but there it is. The song "100 Hundred years"(the song itself makes the album worth buying) starts the trip without mercy with Robert Smith uttering the harsh "It doesnt matter if we all die." You know that you are in for a heck of a ride so your brain automatically buckles its seatbelt and before you know it, your lost in this beautiful and disturbing world. If the cure were labled Goth after this record than they only have themselves to blame for churning out this masterpiece. But you cant help but listen to this and know that all of the dracula wannabes have this record in thier collection.
If your new to the cure and you are interested in trying to understand what all the fuss is about than this is the best starting point for your unforgettable journey into this bands mythic and brilliant music.
Most people will say that Disintegration or Head on the door is the launching pad But I disagree. Pornography is the best way to get it. Its the Cure at its most vulnerable and its most potent. THe song "100 years" will be all the proof you need and before you know it your hooked.
Than you will find yourself patting yourself on the back for listening to this wonderful band...I still do....17 years and counting.
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