The Cure for a Lost World
The English alt-rock band The Cure returns with their first album in 16 years, Songs of a Lost World. It’s a melancholy record that will attract die-hard fans and new listeners alike.
The Cure is releasing an album on Friday called Songs of a Lost World—the first in 16 years for these pioneers of new wave and goth-influenced pop-rock. Listeners will find it reliably gloomy, dark and cinematic.
It’s the band’s 14th studio album, and it began coming together in 2019. The band was planning a 40th anniversary album back then and went into the studio and recorded nearly enough songs for three albums. Now, some of the cuts are properly aged and ready for the public on this new album.
In 2023, The Cure returned to the big stage with a massive Shows of a Lost World Tour, but the last time they released an album was in 2008 with 4:13 Dream. The band offered their fans the singles Alone and A Fragile Thing earlier this month, even hinting at a large 2025 tour in support of the new album
They also seem to be planning something special in 2028 for the band’s 50th anniversary. But frontman Robert Smith said if he makes it to the half-century mark, whatever they do to celebrate it will be the last thing The Cure does as a band.
In the meantime, they’re slated to play a record release show at the Troxy in London on Nov. 1, which will also feature a livestream on YouTube.
In a video interview posted to The Cure’s YouTube channel, Smith explains the inspiration for the two new singles and describes the care that went into their release. He continues to maintain his time-tested stage presence, smudging messy eyeliner and red lipstick onto his face and letting his jet-black hair splay in opposite directions.
The songcalled A Fragile Thing features a broad cinematic sound, leaning into the band’s knack for melancholy and repetitive yearning for something, like love.
Every time you kiss me, I could cry / Don’t tell me how you miss me, I could die
Lyrics like that and the sound that backs them have been an inspiration for modern and up-and-coming indie goth and alt-rock bands like Soccer Mommy, and The Cure have stayed true to their enigmatic sound, even 14 years after their latest album.
In the video interview, Smith defines A Fragile Thing as a love song but says it’s not a love song in the way that Lovesong from 1989 is a love song.
“It’s about love and how love is the most enduring of emotions,” Smith says in the video. “It’s the most powerful emotion, and it’s incredibly resilient. And yet at the same time, incredibly fragile.”
Alone is a very dreamy and dimensional song that might make you feel like you’re floating through space. The tune uses that new wave instrumentation and production, with alt fuzzy guitar work and piano ballads. With a long introduction that’s fully instrumental until the 3:20 mark, Smith’s first words are: This is the end of every song that we sing / The fire burned out to ash and the stars grown dim with tears.
He goes on to sing for another three minutes, letting listeners ruminate in the moment, dragging them through a time warp of sorts.
In the video interview, Smith cites the poem Dregs by English poet Ernet Dowson as an early influence.
“It was in the back of my mind,” Smith says. “However I was writing it, it wasn’t poetic, and suddenly I discovered this, and I thought, ‘That’s it, that’s what’s been bugging me,’ because I knew what the song was supposed to be about,” Smith says.
It’s ultimately the track that unlocked the record, he continues. Once that song was recorded, he felt the entire album come into focus.
For longtime fans, Songs of a Lost World will serve as a warm reunion with songs sulking in the gloominess of The Cure’s early records. But it doesn’t drown in nostalgia. Instead, it delivers a more reflective cinematic sound—something that came naturally for a band in their 44th year.
Kendall Polidori is The Rockhound, Luckbox’s resident rock critic. Follow her reviews on Instagram and X @rockhoundlb, TikTok @rockhoundkp
