“A Short term Effect” by The Cure

"A Short Term Effect" comes from Pornography, the Cure's fourth album, which Fiction released on 3 May 1982, and it was made by a band coming apart at the seams. Robert Smith, Simon Gallup and Lol Tolhurst share the music, with Smith alone on the words; Smith plays guitar and keyboards, Gallup bass, Tolhurst drums and keyboards. Phil Thornalley, producing them for the first time, co-produced with the band at RAK Studios over the first four months of 1982 and engineered with Smith and Mike Nocito.

Drugs, in-fighting and Smith's depression fed straight into the record's pitch-black murk. It closed the gloomy chapter begun on Seventeen Seconds: Gallup left once it was out, and the Cure brightened into radio-friendly new wave. Critics were cool on it at first, but it was their most popular album to date, and it has since been hailed as a milestone of gothic rock.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.