Sixteen years of waiting for a new album. It is said quickly, it is experienced like an eternity. Songs from a lost world is released on November 1st worldwide, and the whole world should fall at the feet of Robert Smith’s band, because making such an awesome album with such a legendary career behind it is not easy.
Legendary and enduring: 48 years, 14 albums; with milestones like Disintegration either Pornography. Songs that are not songs, but blood that is injected into the veins and pumps the heart, like Love song, a forest either Just like heaven.
Unlike other groups of their generation, plagued by laziness, fatigue, lack of ideas or tantrums, The Cure never broke up. It was always there, even if the hiatus between album and album was exhausting, as it was.
Two years ago, the title of the album was already known and expected imminently. “It’s almost done,” Robert Smith said in May 2022. And the distance between almost and completely took him all this time. He regretted, he said recently, having said that. It’s been two years of pressure. But few groups can afford to maintain this pressure, to manage time and manners.
Songs from a lost world It’s an album of only eight tracks but, contrary to the current trend, they are very long. Question the current anxiety of giving everything at the start of a song to hold the listener’s attention at least until the 31st second and thus monetize in the streaming. The themes are characterized by very long introductions (Alone, Endsong, and nothing lasts forever, I can never say goodbye) which are like little steps to enter the water, quite the opposite of diving from a slide. It’s an album that we can’t get impatient with and which goes, once again, against 2024.
This is why the album is titled “Songs of a Lost World” and why it says, in And nothing is forever: “I know my world has grown old and nothing lasts forever.” But after this verse, Robert Smith writes, in what would typically be lacurienne: “But it doesn’t really matter if we say we’ll be together.”
It’s an album that marks the departure, the end of the group. It contains thoughts on growing up and the importance of music. Robert Smith has already explained what his plan is for The Cure: to end it in 2029, the year in which their first album, Three imaginary boys, He will be 50 and 70 years old. Between now and then, he hopes to release at least one more album, which he once again said is “almost ready.” But this adverb sounds strangely familiar.
Following his projects, the continuation of Songs from a lost world It would be released in 2025. Until then, concerts will be rare, since he only wants to give one this year to present the album and another just after the New Year. Initially, he had planned to play in summer festivals next year, but he has changed his mind and there will be no tour until fall 2025. He also wants to make a documentary, but there are many projects and Smith is easily let exceed.
The Cure managed to make an album release date special again, covering November 1st with special expectations and events, such as an interview the day before on the BBC as well as a concert held at their studios for the 6 Music Session program. (recorded in black and white at the band’s request) and the broadcast of a concert from London’s Troxy Hall on Friday at 8:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. PDT). Moreover, since Robert Smith was able to regain control of his career and not depend on any record company, ten years ago, he has demonstrated this freedom, managing the rhythms and imposing his criteria. It’s been ten years since the band dedicated a lot to playing and, according to Smith in the interview he published on his official channel, they seem to be the ten best years of his musical career.
Another consequence of this control is that Robert Smith led a battle against economic abuse in the music industry, notably against Ticketmaster. Until he recently began studying how the music industry worked, he was unaware of many of these abuses. He lowered the prices of his concerts and banned the sale of tickets at dynamic prices (they increase in the event of high demand). As he explained, they have reduced their profit margins to the minimum and despite this, they continue to make a lot of money. So it’s possible.
The Cure Tour Euro 22 tour took the band to 22 countries and 44 dates that year. Two of them, Barcelona and Madrid in November. During the live performances, some of the many songs composed by Robert Smith came to life and patiently waited their turn to be recorded. Alone, Endsong, and nothing is forever And A fragile thing we already knew them. The album is completed by four others.
Their titles are: Warsong, Drone/nodrone, I can never say goodbye And Everything I always am. It’s a shrill, uncomfortable gut-stirring song about the war campaign. Drone/nodrone is another harsh song that, like almost the entire album, is about aging. In I can never say goodbyeequipped with a beautiful piano, addresses the death of his older brother and in the very long and powerful All that I always am, Robert Smith doubts, at 65, who he really is.
Songs from a lost world It’s not a pop album. At this point, fans of Boys don’t cry They must know that, logically, this era will not return again. It’s a giant, overwhelming, dark, difficult, melancholic, welcoming, deep and captivating album that is not background music or for a TV commercial. It’s an album about learning to live and die.
