Background
The band, Robert Smith in particular, wanted to make the album with a different producer than Mike Hedges, who had produced Seventeen Seconds and Faith. The group settled with Pete Thornalley. Pornography is the last Cure album to feature founding band member Lol Tolhurst as the band's drummer (he then became the band's keyboardist) and is also the first time he played keyboards on a Cure release.
On the album's recording sessions, Smith noted "there was a lot of drugs involved". According to Tolhurst, "we wanted to make the ultimate, intense album. I can't remember exactly why, but we did." The recording sessions commenced and concluded in three weeks. Smith noted, "At the time, I lost every friend I had, everyone, without exception, because I was incredibly obnoxious, appalling, self-centered." He also noted that with the album, he "channeled all the self-destructive elements of my personality into doing something."
Regarding the album's musical style, NME reviewer Dave Hill wrote, "The drums, guitars, voice and production style are pressed scrupulously together in a murderous unity of surging, textured mood." Hill further described it as "Phil Spector in Hell".
Polydor Records, the company in charge of Fiction Records, the label under which the album was released, were initially displeased with the album's title. The album's artwork is the first in The Cure's output not to feature the logo for the group's name that was used on previous releases.
Read more about this topic: Pornography (album)
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