How appropriate that I should be blogging about this album on the very week KEXP (formerly KCMU)'s vinyl library is being disintegrated, the records removed from their dusty shelves and boxed up to be transported to the shiny, sexy new home. (I hope you guys are careful with those little paper labels!) I look forward to being reunited with them there, but for now I send my thanks to the wonderful Janice for grabbing a few photos for me, including this gem, which I had somehow not yet covered.
The Internet informs me that Disintegration - I think now acknowledged by all right-minded humans to be a classic - was not at all well-received initially by the powers that be at Elektra Records. Perhaps used to some of the poppier numbers on Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, the label thought this record was way too much of a downer, and accused Robert Smith of being "willfully obscure." It's a good thing they went ahead and released it anyway, since it ended up being the band's most successful release, achieving dizzying new chart heights in the US and UK. Despite the comments of one of our DJ pals below, it even birthed a legitimate top 40 hit in "Lovesong." Let's hear it for the power of gloom and depression!
Back to the present for a moment: The Cure are touring the States next spring, including a jaunt up the West coast. There are no official dates listed in our fair state, but we all know what that late-May gap means, right? Right.
"As you would expect. A retreat of sorts to the Faith/Pornography era, musically, but with the added musical experience of 6 yrs. Chock full of music.""Good caller response on NNTNBT [Not Necessarily the Next Big Thing], but of course."
"You're lazy if you play 'Fascination Street.'"
"I thought if I waited a while, this might grow on me. Well..."
"Yes. I'm afraid I do like it as much as their other stuff - back to basics Cure, for the basic Cure fan. No top 40 hits, but who needs 'em? Not me."
The name Erik Lindgren was not familiar to me at first glance (nor, for that matter, was the name of the currently-more-famous celebrity poker player Erick Lindgren), but it turns out I have heard his work before - and even covered it on this blog. Lindgren has lived all over and been affiliated wi…
It seems the thing people at KCMU most wanted to talk about regarding this 12" single by the Northern Irish band (with an American singer) That Petrol Emotion was the graphic statement on the back of the record regarding the strip searching of female prisoners at Armagh Prison in Northern Ireland. …
