Background
The Cure's second album Seventeen Seconds (1980) established the group as a prominent gothic rock band characterised by what Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic described as "slow, gloomy dirges and Smith's ghoulish appearance". Three singles were released during 1982 and 1983 that were a significant divergence in style for The Cure; essentially, pop hits. "The Love Cats" became The Cure's first single to infiltrate the top-ten in the United Kingdom, peaking at number seven. This shift is attributed to Smith's frustration over the band's labelling as a predictable gothic rock band: "My reaction to all those people ... was to make a demented and calculated song like 'Let's Go to Bed'." Following the return of guitarist Porl Thompson and bassist Simon Gallup in 1984 and the addition of drummer Boris Williams in 1985, Smith and keyboardist Lol Tolhurst continued to integrate more pop-oriented themes with the release of the group's sixth studio album The Head on the Door (1985). With the singles "In-Between Days" and "Close to Me", The Cure became a viable commercial force in the United States for the first time.
The band's 1987 double album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me resulted in further commercial success, with a sold-out world tour booked in its wake. Despite the success, internal friction became prevalent. Tolhurst began to consume heavy amounts of alcohol, rendering him useless. Roger O'Donnell was hired as a second keyboardist to pick up the slack. O'Donnell quickly realised that Tolhurst was essentially dead weight: "I couldn't see why was in the band. He could have afforded to hire a tutor and have daily lessons, but he wasn't interested in practicing. He just liked being in the group." The rest of the band was equally unimpressed. As Tolhurst's alcohol consumption increased, Smith recalled that his behaviour was similar to that of "some kind of handicapped child being constantly poked with a stick". At the end of the Kissing Tour in support of Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Smith became uncomfortable with the side effects of being a pop-star and moved to Maida Vale with fiancée Mary Poole. Regularly taking LSD to cope with his depression, Smith once again felt The Cure was being misunderstood and sought to return to the band's dark side with their next record.
Read more about this topic: Disintegration (The Cure album)
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