with the eighth pick in the second round of the 2013 Desert Island Music Draft, i select...
The Cure - Disintegration (05/01/89):
01 Plainsong
02 Pictures of You
03 Closedown
04 Lovesong
05 Last Dance
06 Lullaby
07 Fascination Street
08 Prayers for Rain
09 The Same Deep Water as You
10 Disintegration
Genre: post-punk, gothic rock, new wave
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disintegration_(The_Cure_album)
Deftones' seminal 2000 album, White Pony, was my first pick in the draft. it was a vanity pick, because it's my favorite album of all time, and while there was certainly no danger of it being claimed in the early rounds (if at all), i wanted to make a statement regarding the way i would be drafting. the Deftones have been my favorite band since junior high, when i first heard their second album, Around the Fur. it was around this time that i was able to begin defining and curating my own music taste outside of my father's record collection. so i would read every interview with the Deftones in every magazine i could find, soaking up whatever knowledge they were willing to impart to their fans. when you're young, bright-eyed, and desiring new music to listen to, and late-90's radio is inundating your ears with the likes of Britney Spears and N'sync, but you also haven't the faintest idea of where to start looking for something better, something of quality, the best place to begin is amongst your favorite band's influences...
Deftones' vocalist Chino Moreno is a unique and unusual voice in metal because he's not afraid to wear his post-punk influence on his sleeve, citing Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan, Japan's David Sylvian, The Smiths' Morrisey, and The Cure's Robert Smith as some of his favorite singers. in an era of dial-up internet, and with limited access to information about music outside of MTV, i trotted my teenage self down to Dimple Records in Roseville damn near every week, digging for treasure through the aisles of used CD's. i became friendly with Dimple's staff, and they were never shy about pointing me in the right direction. the Cure's Disintegration was among my earliest and most-prized finds, it's synth-driven beauty painting the kind of emotional landscape that i was looking for in music, but could not find amongst the sea of guitar-wielding fakers, boy band choreography, and Jock Jams amateurism...
Deftones' White Pony would eventually become my favorite album as the calendar turned over to the new millenium, giving way to its summer time release. but in the autumn and winter of 1999, without a compass, Disintegration helped me to truly fall in love with music. from the popular wedding-day anthem "Lovesong" to the unrelenting groove of "Fascination Street" to the wide screen grandeur of title track "Disintegration," the Cure redefined themselves on their own terms, and made a stone cold classic of an album. they've not been able to top it since, nor would i really want them to. Disintegration is so near to perfection. its genuinely emotive. it wraps the listener in its cocoon for an hour, and the listener comes out the other side changed. its influence stretches so wide on contemporary synth-based music. without the transcendent "Plainsong," perhaps highly-regarded artists like M83 fail to materialize. i am grateful that Disintegration is, has been, and always will be a part of my life. that gratitude is why i've selected it with my second round pick...