Songs Of A Lost World
“I know that my world is grown old,” Robert Smith says in “And Nothing Is Forever,” one of the many standout tracks on The Cure’s 14th studio album and first in 16 years. *Songs of a Lost World* deals almost exclusively in death, dying, and the relentless march of time; the songs move slowly, and many go on for minutes before Smith opens his mouth. There’s no pop hits, no hooks, and—let’s face it—no fun. It’s also some of the band’s most engrossing work, a statement that, like most great Cure songs, can’t be taken lightly. The glacially paced opener and lead single, “Alone,” is majestic and mournful, with string swells and apocalyptic lyrics about birds falling out of the sky. But mostly it’s about dying alone, the shattered pieces of a regret-filled life, and the forgone conclusion that is our mutual demise: “This is the end of every song that we sing.” On “A Fragile Thing,” a plinking piano gives way to a thudding bassline as Smith sings of heartbreak, distance, and fait accompli. It might be the closest the album comes to vintage ’80s Cure, but now the 65-year-old Smith’s customarily downbeat lyrics come with the weight of lived wisdom and cruel inevitability. “Warsong” twists the screws with a churning, droning meditation on domestic battles and bitter regret; at a bit over four minutes, it’s also the shortest song on the album. “Drone:Nodrone” is the catchiest and most upbeat of the bunch—musically speaking, anyway. Smith’s lyrics are no picnic, of course. They’re not a completely hopeless death spiral, but they certainly acknowledge a tumultuous relationship: “The answers that I have are not the answers that you want” and “I can’t anymore/If I ever really could.” The track also features squalling guitar leads from former Tin Machine/David Bowie sideman Reeves Gabrels, who joined The Cure in 2012 but makes his first studio appearance with the band here. “I Can Never Say Goodbye” laments the death of Smith’s brother Richard with the refrain “Something wicked this way comes,” a phrase popularized by the title of Ray Bradbury’s influential 1962 novel. (The Cure debuted the song in concert in 2022 in Poland, where Richard Smith apparently lived for many years.) Like much of *Lost World*, it’s a tearjerker. With all this loss and mortality, *Songs of a Lost World* recalls Bowie’s 2016 swan song, *Blackstar*. Finishing an album about death with a sprawling, gorgeous track called “Endsong” isn’t necessarily ominous, but who knows? For what it’s worth, Smith is already promising a follow-up to *Songs of a Lost World*. Hopefully, it won’t take 16 years.
Sixteen years after their last album, Robert Smith & co. return at their own glacial pace. Sounding regal, weary, and deliciously slow, they grapple with mortality and doubt as only they could.
The Cure is still firing on all cylinders 16 years after their last full-length album.
The NME review of The Cure's long-awaited first album in 16 years, 'Songs Of A Lost World' – dealing in death but with flowers on the grave
For illustrative purposes, Songs Of A Lost World is The Cure’s finest work since Thatcher was in power.
All these years later, rock’s foremost goth can still tap into teenage intensity on ‘Songs of a Lost World’
Perennial gloomsters The Cure are back to their majestic, melancholy best on Songs of a Lost World, their first album in 16 years.
Sometimes, fans can wait so long for something that when it's finally in their hands - or ears, in this case - they are filled with a sense of disbelief.
Out this week on Fiction, The Cure’s first album in 16 years presents an audaciously bleak, beautiful journey towards the great unknown...
The band’s first album in 16 years finds Robert Smith and co on reliably melancholy form – with the exception of one out-and-out pop banger
The Cure’s ‘Songs of a Lost World’ doesn’t feel overworked, and largely sounds like a band playing live in a room.
Songs Of A Lost World by The Cure album review by Jarrett Edmund for Northern Transmissions. The album is out today via Fiction/Capitol
The band are at an artistic peak on their first album in 16 years: movingly melancholic, with a punchy sound to match the lyrics’ emotional impact
The Cure - Songs of a Lost World review: This is the end of every song we sing.
Robert Smith transmutes grief, anxiety, anger and self-doubt in this exhilarating album. Plus: Willie Nelson and Tyler the Creator
Robert Smith is at the height of his melancholic powers on The Cure’s first album since 2008
Could melancholia be an elixir of creative youth? Or is it that sad people were never really that youthful, so age suits them? Certainly it seems that there was something in the water for so many of the foundational 80s indie bands who dealt in sadness, pain and existential angst that makes longevity suit them: The Jesus & Mary Chain, Dinosaur Jr., Throwing Muses, Ride, Slowdive just for starters have all somehow ambled into the 2020s on the creative form of their lives.
The Cure's 14th album Songs Of A Lost World is a bleak yet energised record, 16 years on from their last studio release