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Baker's Dozen

Crime Plays: Writer Ian Rankin On His 13 Favourite Albums
Luke Turner , November 21st, 2012 07:37

Ian Rankin talks to Luke Turner about his life in music, and how he'd like to write novels based on Joy Division and David Bowie albums

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The Cure - Disintegration
It's the only album with lyrics that I can write to. It's a great album, but it took me a while to get it. In the early days of The Cure… I tried the early days of The Cure, and thought it was fine, though I loved 'A Forest', I thought that was an amazing track, but the albums didn't always do it for me. I found them a bit cold, there was something quite dry about the sound. But then you get to Disintegration and it's got so much emotion, it's got all these washes of sound. For an album that's quite bleak at its heart, it's insanely beautiful. I think that Robert Smith is completely in control of his material. He knows how he wants this album to sound, he knows how he wants it to look, he really feels the lyrics as he's singing them. It's a completely immersive experience. Again there's a film playing in my head as I listen to it.