The Cure “Pornography” released on either today’s date, May 3rd, or tomorrow’s, in 1982 (conflicting info possibly based on Brit v. US time zones). Psychedelic post-punk goth, Pornography – The Cure’s fourth album – is widely hailed as their best and is considered a pivotal point in the evolution of gothic rock; it reached #8 on the UK album charts. The bleak landscape that permeates the record stemmed from Robert Smith’s depression and exhaustion. Its recording was also fueled by a lot of alcohol and hallucinogens: the band tripped on acid and drank so much booze that “we built this mountain of empties in the corner, a gigantic pile of debris in the corner. It just grew and grew.”

The Cure released one single off of Pornography, “The Hanging Garden” which hit #32 in the UK. “The Hanging Garden’s” lyrics are featured in the original James O’Barr comic book The Crow.  During the production of the 1994 Brandon Lee film version, Robert Smith was asked if the single from Pornography could be used on the film’s official soundtrack. Smith like the comic so much he instead opted to write the original song “Burn” for the movie instead. I love “The Hanging Garden” as well as the other lush atmospheric tracks like “One Hundred Years,” which achieves a sound both sparse and almost claustrophobically dense at the same time, “The Figurehead” with its darkly creepy bass line and lyrics like “A scream tears my clothes as the figurines tighten with spiders inside them and dust on the lips of a vision of hell,” and “A Strange Day” which incorporates a bit of jangling psychedelic guitar, adding just a whisper of lightness to a song that seems to describe  someone drowning in depression. The Cure also manages to slip in early industrial rhythmic elements, a precursor to the goth-psychedelic-industrial hybrid sound of bands like Love & Rockets on “A Short Term Effect” and “Cold” and finally goes full-on experimental tripping on the last track “Pornography.”