Pornography
by The Cure
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The Cure bestography
Pornography is ranked 2nd best out of 40 albums by The Cure on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by The Cure is Disintegration which is ranked number 27 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 25,424.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
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Pornography track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 84 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
Pornography rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 3 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 |  videoheadcleaner | videoheadcleaner's 101-200 | 1/100 | - |
| 2026 | lanadeleswift | Top 39 Music Albums of 1982 | 29/39 | 1 |
| 2026 | fabm0 | List 1982 | 27/100 | - |
| 2026 | saltysurprise | Top 54 Music Albums of 1982 | 4/54 | 5 |
| 2026 | Untitled | Top 25 Music Albums of 1982 | 1/25 | 5 |
| 2026 | christosbakas | Top 5 Music Albums of 1982 | 5/5 | 1 |
| 2026 | Vasco | Top 34 Music Albums of the 1980s | 1/34 | 20 |
| 2026 | fabm0 | 1 My Chart All Time 3 | 12/100 | - |
| 2026 | martintho | Top 55 Music Albums of 1982 | 45/55 | 1 |
| 2026 |  RockyRaccoon | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 40/100 | 12 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 730 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 5,654 | |||
Pornography collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 434 members
Pornography ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 1,015 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 18 hours ago | jr_uk_1234 | 169 | 82/100 |
| ! | 10/23/2026 20:42 | AlexandreSilva | 139 | 69/100 |
| ! | 10/10/2026 14:12 | stereosanctity | 41 | 77/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 1% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 80.3/100, a mean average of 79.5/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 80.4/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.3.
Pornography favourites
Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 164 members
Pornography forum mentions
BestEverAlbums 3 days ago in Chart of the day (#5479): By RhynerView latest topic →
BestEverAlbums 09/24/2026 20:00 in Album of the day (#7486): Pornography by The CureView latest topic →
View all forum mentions
Pornography comments
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I can't disagree more with the review that says this seems dated based on the fact that it sounds hollow and shallow. That was the ENTIRE point. The album has a hollow, dead flat sound throughout. That was the goal. It's symbolic of the emptiness of everything. The drums provide a pattern but no beat for you to dance to or to give life to the album. That is by design. That's the genius of it... it sound alike what it says. Also find it strange that people are overlooking A Strange Day, which is the best song. (Edited)
SuedeSwede TOP 100 COMMENTER 09/02/2013 17:06 | #85035 | TOP COMMENT
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Although it's still really gothic, Pornography is a really exciting album to listen to from the amazing opener of One Hundred Years to the train-wreck closer of Pornography (which happens to be the only bad track), and for that reason I prefer it to Disintegration. I mean, fine, Disintegration is a lot more iconic and has better lyrics, but it lacks all excitement and coherence that Pornography has in every single song.
Key tracks: One Hundred Years, Figurehead, Siamese Twins
Key lyric: 'It doesn't matter if we all die.'
If I was insanely creative but epically depressed, angry & nihilistic, this is the album I would dream of making. I'm of huge fan of Sabbath, Slayer, Electric Wizard & all things heavy metal. But, I'm sorry. I know this is going to sound crazy. This is the angriest, scariest & heaviest album of all time!
If you say you like gothic rock and you don't like this album, you're a liar. (Edited)
Grzywa 01/06/2016 15:10 | #155980 | TOP COMMENT
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Post punk, cold wave, gothic, call it what you want. Robert Smith at the peak of his most gloomy 3-album period. Not the best Cure album to my taste, but pretty strong and enthralling all the way through. Best tracks: "One Hundred Years", "Strange Day", "Figurehead".
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