Albumdata
| Artist | The Cure |
| Album | Songs Of A Lost World |
| Year of release | 2024 |
Rating
Introduction
On September 25, 2024, the website songsofalost.world was launched. After 16 long years it was finally really happening, a new album by The Cure!
Route to Songs Of A Lost World
The sequel to the album 4:13 Dream has been 16 years in the making. Back in 2019 the next album was just moments away. At the time Robert Smith, composer and The Cure’s de-facto leader, stated: “I keep going back over and redoing them, which is silly. At some point, I have to say that’s it. It’s very much on the darker side of the spectrum.” It would take a few more years.
The long waiting period isn’t without its reasons. Robert Smith lost both his parents and his brother, keyboard player Roger O’Donnell is still fighting a rare (and aggressive) type of cancer and on August 14, 2021, fixed member since the early 1980s, Simon Gallup, posted the message below on his Facebook page:
The Cure – Simon Gallup leaves – 14-08-2021
When asked if his leaving was because of health issues he replied “I’m ok… just got fed up of betrayal.” That didn’t sound right. The Cure didn’t respond, with the exception of Roger O’Donnell who jokingly tweeted “A friend just told me they saw Lol in the Guitar Centre buying a bass???????” (referring to original Cure member Lol Tolhurst). Two months later Gallup announced he was still/again part of the band. Luckily so, as Gallup is an integral part of the band’s sound and image, as evidenced by these words by Robert Smith from a 2019 NME interview: “He[Gallup]’s absolutely vital to what we do”.
In March 2022 Robert Smith said the band was busy working on two albums, one of which was going to be called Songs Of A Lost World. Two months later it was announced that it was supposed to be released before the start of the upcoming Lost World tour through Europe and the UK. That didn’t happen, and still nothing happened in 2023 when the band took their Shows Of A Lost World tour to North and South America. On October 1, 2024, The Cure released the 12-inch single Novembre: Live In France 2022, consisting of 2 new songs recorded live in France in 2022: And Nothing Is Forever and I Can Never Say Goodbye.
The Cure – Alone
At long last: the new album
On September 9, 2024, The Cure changed its profile photo on their social media channels (see the image at the top of this review). The first signs that something was afoot. On September 23 the song Alone was announced for release on the 26th. On that day the album Songs Of A Lost World was announced for release on November 1, 2024. Finally The Cure was releasing new music again.
Well, and how was it, that renewed introduction, was Alone worth the long wait? For me personally it was a glorious moment. Alone is gloomy, dark, sad, comforting and compelling. The song has a long intro. When Robert Smith’s enters the song after 3:30 minutes, we’re completely set back to the early 1980s, when the ‘doom and gloom’ was tangible each and every day and we were waiting for the world to end.
This is the end of every song that we sing
The fire burned out to ash and
The stars grown dim with tears
Cold and afraid
The ghosts of all that we’ve been
We toast, with bitter dregs, to our emptiness© Alone – The Cure
The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World – 26-09-2024
At midnight on November 1, 2024, the album was made available on Spotify. I was returning home from a concert by another 1980s icon who is still relevant today with new music, Nick Cave, and I listened to the album in the car. It soon dawned on me that this was an album I would thoroughly enjoy.
The heavy, slow music dominates the album. The type of music that made me fall in love with The Cure in 1980 and 1981 (with the albums Seventeen Seconds and Faith). Later albums were nice, but never again that special, which also extended to the highly rated Disintegration, which sounded cold and cool to me. I lost sight of the band ever more, until the time I saw them live again in Amsterdam (see The Cure, 13-11-2016) and I wrote articles for my blog on the fantastic Seventeen Seconds and Faith albums.
The Cure – A Fragile Thing
After the opener Alone, which convinced Smith that the album was finally happening, A Fragile Thing follows, on October 9 released as a single, which is vintage Cure. Warsong is filled with bitterness and malice and can be interpreted as an indictment against war, or maybe it’s targeted at fights within the personal atmosphere, such as the falling out with Gallup in 2021?
Oh, it’s misery the way we fight
For bitter ends we tear the night in two
I want your death, you want my life
We tell each other lies to hide the truth
And we hate ourselves for everything we do
Is shame wounded pride, vengeful angel burning deep inside
Poison in our blood and pain, broken dreams, mournful hopes
For all we might have been, all misunderstood© Warsong – The Cure
The Cure – Novembre: Live In France 2022
Drone:Nodrone is the way The Cure sounds after receiving the assignment to include funk in their musical palette. Surprisingly good. I Can Never Say Goodbye addresses the death of Robert Smith’s brother: “I wrote this song a lot of different ways, until I hit on a very simple narrative of what actually happened on the night he died.”
Thunder rolling in to drown
November moon in cold black rain
This lightning splits the sky apart
And whispering his name
He has to wake up
Love slipping away
Hear the bells beyond the sea
It’s almost too late
Shadows growing closer now
And there is nowhere left to hide
And I can’t wake this dreamless sleep
However hard I try
I’m down on my knees
And empty inside© I Can Never Say Goodbye – The Cure
The closing Endsong is the perfect connection or counterpart to the album’s opener Alone. Another long tension building intro. Smith wrote this song after sitting in his garden staring at the starlit sky and remembering he did the same at 10 years old, on the night Apollo 11 landed on the moon.
And I’m outside in the dark staring at the blood red moon
Remembering the hopes and dreams I had and all I had to do
And wondering what became of that boy and the world he called his own
I’m outside in the dark wondering how I got so old© Endsong – The Cure
The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World
Review
Songs Of A Lost World is vintage Cure. The atmosphere the album breathes is melancholy, black, desperate even, but never depressing. I have never seen The Cure as a depressive band. Even Faith has a sense of hope, which also rings true for Songs Of A Lost World, the first album since Head On The Door that I truly want to hear more and more. After 40 (!) years a Cure album that touches, moves and comforts at a time that provides little joy.
Songs
All songs written by Robert Smith.
- Alone
- And Nothing Is Forever
- A Fragile Thing
- Warsong
- Drone:Nodrone
- I Can Never Say Goodbye
- All I Ever Am
- Endsong
Musicians
- Robert Smith – vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards
- Simon Gallup – bass
- Jason Cooper – drums, percussion
- Roger O’Donnell – keyboards
- Reeves Gabrels – guitar
The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World – 01-11-2024
In closing
On October 14, 2024 Robert Smith said that the tour for Songs Of A Lost World will commence in the fall of 2025, after work for the next album has finished…
What’s your take on this album by The Cure? Let me know!
Video/Spotify
This story contains an accompanying video. Click on the following link to see it: Video: The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World. The A Pop Life playlist on Spotify has been updated as well.
2 comments
I would not consider myself a The Cure fan. Cure fans were strange people back in the 80ies with pale faces and black eyes, clothes and hair. But let me put it that way: I was always remotely interested in their output and liked some of their songs, in particularly during their “Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me” phase. When I listened intensively to Prince Sign Of The Times in 1987, a friend of mine was die-hard The Cure fan so our worlds met at this time. Cut and move forward 37 years. I have long lost contact to that friend from ago and have to admit that I have also lost my interest in music a bit. I think I have listened to such a lot music during the first 35 years of my life, that this passion has somewhat left me to some extent. Out of pure curiosity, I gave “Songs Of A Lost World” a try and this album caught me totally off guard. This is the first album since … I cannot even remember … that I have listened to in full and without a pause from first to last song for several times. I usually don’t do that anymore. And I am still fascinated. This album still grows on me and is pure magic. Usually, aging popstars get worse and their later work is almost always disappointing (in contrary to other arts.) Not with Robert Smith. This album is the best music I have heard for ages and I find it fascinating that it hit number 1 spots in Germany and England. I cannot even remember when I loved a number 1 album on the charts the last time. I would still not consider myself a The Cure fan and I absolutely have no desire to see them live. I am always underwhelmed when I see their live stuff on Youtube. But this album is great great great art and I give 6 stars (out of 5) to it.
Author
Wow JP, thank you for your elaborate reply. For me personally, the interest in music never left, but this album did actually move me more than I thought possible. I agree with your assessment of Songs Of A Lost World!