Disentegration

The Cure's gloomy masterpiece along with Jane's Addiction's Nothing Shocking were probably the two most important albums to me when I was in high school. The great thing about those two records is that 20 years later the music still stands up. Simon Gallup's bass line that starts out Fascination Street is still one of my favorite non Peter Hook bass lines in music.Disintegration was the bands eighth studio album and a return to the moody "goth" sound they helped pioneer in the early eighties. As he was approaching 30 Robert Smith began to feel nervous that he had surpassed his creative peak. This along with a return to using hallucinogenic drugs gave the album a much more dark and psychedelic sound than their last few albums. The record label felt that Disintegration was career suicide but the album went on to be their highest seller. After Wish I quit following the bands new releases and a sub par set at Coachella in 2004 left me less than eager to catch them live. Still, those early albums sound as good today as they did when I was in high school.