HomeThe CurePornography
Pornography
Rock · 1982 · 8 tracks

Pornography

A suffocating, industrial-tinged descent into nihilism. Dense drums and hallucinatory guitars create the definitive document of gothic rock's darkest hour.

Find on Amazon

Nihilistic peak

A suffocating, over-saturated wall of sound defines this bleak monument, sounding like a band collapsing in real-time. Recorded amid heavy drug use and intense depression, the music trades all previous restraint for a claustrophobic density where every instrument fights for space in a murky, reverb-drenched landscape. The drums are mixed with a brutal, mechanical prominence that drives each track forward with the inevitability of a fever dream, while the vocals sound strained, desperate, and occasionally distorted by tape effects.

Pornography · vs · The Cure
Intense+4.0σ

The vocals lean far further into intense than the rest of the catalogue.

Tracklist · 8 Tracks
01
One Hundred Years
6:41
02
A Short Term Effect
4:22
03
The Hanging Garden
4:34
04
Siamese Twins
5:28
05
The Figurehead
6:15
06
A Strange Day
5:04
07
Cold
4:27
08
Pornography
6:28
Moments Worth Waiting For
01One Hundred YearsThe opening track 'One Hundred Years' establishes the album's aggressive pulse with a relentless, tribal drum machine pattern and a screeching, dissonant guitar figure.
07ColdOn 'Cold', a heavy, minor-key synthesizer drone mimics a funeral organ, creating a massive, cathedral-like atmosphere of total despair.
The sessions marked the band's first collaboration with producer Phil Thornalley, who helped capture the dense, over-saturated sound at RAK Studios.
Sits BesideSee all
Mesh & Lace
Mesh & Lace
Modern English
1981

Shares post-punk, darkwave, art rock (subgenres); brooding, anxious, intense (moods)

Dysphoria
Dysphoria
Morphine
2020

Shares post-punk, darkwave, art rock (subgenres); brooding, anxious, intense (moods)

Dead Can Dance
Dead Can Dance
Dead Can Dance
1984

Shares reverb_heavy, analog_warmth, noise_textured (production style); post-punk, art rock (subgenres)

AE
An Eye on You
Bloody Dead and Sexy
2010

Shares post-punk, darkwave, art rock (subgenres); reverb_heavy, layered_dense, analog_warmth (production style)

Change of Skin
Change of Skin
The Danse Society
2011

Shares post-punk, darkwave, art rock (subgenres); urban_night, cathedral, fog (atmosphere)

Faith
Faith
The Cure
1981

Shares post-punk, darkwave, art rock (subgenres); reverb_heavy, analog_warmth, tape_saturation (production style)

Atrocities
Atrocities
Christian Death
1986

Shares post-punk, darkwave, art rock (subgenres); reverb_heavy, analog_warmth, layered_dense (production style)

Heaven Up Here
Heaven Up Here
Echo & the Bunnymen
1981

Shares post-punk, psychedelic rock, art rock (subgenres); reverb_heavy, layered_dense, noise_textured (production style)

The Burden of Mules
The Burden of Mules
The Wolfgang Press
1983

Shares post-punk, darkwave, art rock (subgenres); reverb_heavy, noise_textured, analog_warmth (production style)

Revelations
Revelations
Killing Joke
1982

Shares post-punk, art rock (subgenres); urban_night, cathedral, fog (atmosphere)

Reviews
rollingstone.de
Read review
AllMusic
Read review

Cassette uses generative AI to enrich its catalog. How we use AI →