Disintegration is the eighth studio album by the English rock band the Cure, released on 2 May 1989, by Fiction Records. The band recorded the album at Hookend Recording Studios in Checkendon, Oxfordshire, with co-producer David M. Allen from late 1988 to early 1989.

The album marks a return to the introspective gothic rock style the band had established in the early 1980s. As he neared the age of 30, vocalist and guitarist Robert Smith had felt an increased pressure to follow up on the band's pop successes with a more enduring work. This, coupled with a distaste for the group's newfound popularity, caused Smith to lapse back into the use of hallucinogenic drugs, the effects of which had a strong influence on the production of the album. Following the completion of the mixing, founding member Lol Tolhurst was fired from the band.

Disintegration became the band's highest charting album up to that point, reaching number three on the UK Albums Chart and number 12 on the US Billboard 200, and produced several hit singles, including "Lovesong", which peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. It remains the band's highest-selling record to date, with more than four million copies sold worldwide. It was greeted with a warm critical reception before later being widely acclaimed, including being placed at number 116 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2020. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called it the "culmination of all the musical directions the Cure were pursuing over the course of the '80s".

The band's 1987 double album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me was commercially successful, with a sold-out world tour booked in its wake. Despite the international success the band was now enjoying, internal friction was increasing due to Lol Tolhurst's increasing alcoholism at the time. Keyboardist Roger O'Donnell (who had recently been touring with The Psychedelic Furs), was soon hired as a second touring keyboardist. As Tolhurst's alcohol consumption increased, the other band members would tease Tolhurst, leading Smith to later comment that his behaviour was similar to that of "some kind of handicapped child being constantly poked with a stick". At the end of the Kissing Tour in support of the album, Smith became uncomfortable with the side effects of being a pop star and moved to Maida Vale (in West London) with fiancée Mary Poole. Regularly taking LSD to cope with his depression, Smith once again felt the band was being misunderstood and sought to return to its dark side with their next record.

Smith's anguish prior to the recording of Disintegration gave way to the realisation on his 29th birthday that he would turn 30 in one year. This realisation was frightening to him, as he felt all the masterpieces in rock and roll had been completed well before the band members reached such an age. Smith consequently began to write music without the rest of the band. The material he had written instantly took a dismal, depressing form, which he credited to "the fact that I was gonna be thirty". The band convened at drummer Boris Williams's home and compared their individual demos that each member recorded, and they rated them "1 to 10", then the group met later at a second session and recorded a total of 32 songs at Williams's house with a 16-track recorder by the end of the summer. Of these 32 songs, 12 would make it onto the final album.

When the band entered Hook End Manor Studios, their attitude had turned sour towards Tolhurst's escalating alcohol abuse, although Smith insisted that his displeasure was caused by a meltdown in the face of recording the band's career-defining album and reaching 30. Displeased with the swollen egos he believed his bandmates possessed, Smith entered what he considered to be "one of my non-talking modes" deciding "I would be monk-like and not talk to anyone. It was a bit pretentious really, looking back, but I actually wanted an environment that was slightly unpleasant". He sought to abandon the mood present on Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me and the pop singles they had released, and rather recreate the atmosphere of the band's fourth album Pornography (1982). Despite the serious subject matter of the album, O'Donnell commented in 2009 that the atmosphere in the studio was still upbeat during the sessions: "I remember very clearly laughing and joking and fooling around in the control room while Robert was singing 'Disintegration', and then all of us trying to be serious when he came in to listen back.[...] It was never a serious atmosphere in the studio, and when you think about the album and how dark it is, I'm sure people think we were sitting around slitting our wrists with candles and chains hanging from the walls."

While Tolhurst had contributed to the foundation of the song "Homesick" (according to O'Donnell), his musical contributions to the album were marginal as his alcohol abuse rendered him more or less incapable of playing. The other members, finally, threatened to quit if Tolhurst was not fired before the end of the recording session. When Tolhurst arrived to the mixing of the album, and then became excessively drunk, a shouting match ensued and he left the building furious; three weeks later, Smith decided to terminate his tenure with the band prior to the band's upcoming tour. It was during this period that O'Donnell was asked by Smith to become a full-time member, instead of simply a touring musician. Despite Tolhurst's ejection from the group, Smith told NME in April 1989, "He'll probably be back by Christmas. He's getting married, maybe that's his comeback." Tolhurst briefly reunited with the band in 2011 during the Reflection tour.

Disintegration was Smith's thematic return to a dark and gloomy aesthetic that the Cure had explored in the early 1980s. Smith deliberately sought to record an album that was depressing, as it was a reflection of the despondency he felt at the time. The sound of the album was a shock to the band's American label Elektra Records; the label requested Smith shift the release date back several months. Smith recalled "they thought I was being 'wilfully obscure', which was an actual quote from the letter [Smith received from Elektra]. Ever since then I realised that record companies don't have a fucking clue what The Cure does and what The Cure means." Despite rumours that Smith was one of the only contributors to the record, he confirmed that more than half of the dozen tracks on Disintegration had substantial musical input from the rest of the band.