Live Review: Leeds Festival 2012

It's not exactly been a vintage year for the UK's major festival circuit. Mediocre lineups, Glastonbury's absence and the odd cancellation have, truth be told, made for a rather quiet season, with no real success stories or headline grabbing antics to speak of. Reading and Leeds, the last of the summer giants can usually be relied on to liven things up, but this year even they appeared a tad underwhelming, with a pair of generic headliners topping a bill which looked average at best. This twin event's ace card, however, has always been its depth, so there was a certain inevitability in the way that the schedule became more and more attractive with each new announcement.

Album Retrospective: The Cure - Disintegration

Album Rating: A+

While writing on behalf of an album, I often think to myself what the purpose of reviewing music is. I usually just set my opinions to text and then publish them to the wonderful web without really taking into consideration what other people will actually do with my writing. I either equate writing a review to either simply expressing an opinion (what I usually do) or attempting to urge readers to listen to whatever it is you are writing about. I suppose in plenty of cases I've written a piece with the intention of convincing people that something is worth listening to, but I have never sat down thinking "I absolutely must make people listen to this album". It is definitely a gratifying feeling knowing that something you wrote encouraged somebody to sit down with an album that they would later on love dearly, but that isn't something I've seeked in my writing. I've thought to myself "this is an album that people must hear", but have never found it in myself to justify such a statement. As you have probably guessed what I'm getting at by now, Disintegration is an album that I truly believe that people absolutely must at least attempt to listen to. Of course I will outline why The Cure's magnum opus is essential for your listening, but I am just putting it out there right now, that as well as expressing my feelings for this music, my intention with this piece is to convince you to listen to this album.