The Cure‘s Robert Smith has opened up about the long wait for their new album ‘Songs Of A Lost World‘.
The post-punk legends have been teasing the follow-up to 2008’s ‘4:13 Dream‘ for some weeks now, starting by changing their online presence before sending fans postcards alluding to the album title and release date, putting up a poster at the Crawley pub where they played their first gig, beaming projections in cities around the world, and launching a secret website and WhatsApp channel that would later give fans a short taster of their new single ‘Alone‘.
Following the release of the track – which marked their first single in 16 years – the band also confirmed that their 14th album ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ will be released on November 1 and is available to pre-order now here.
Now, speaking about the wait for their new LP in a clip shared to the band’s official Instagram account, Smtih shared: “I don’t think there was really a kind of an official beginning to this album because it’s been kind of drifting in and out of my life for like an awful long time. I mean if I have one regret is that I said anything at all about it in 2019 because I really shouldn’t have done that.”
He continued: “We had only just started creating it. I don’t know, there are various points where I thought ‘I think we are going to make a new album’ and then it’s kind of the idea, sort of like for various reasons, other things have happened and the idea’s been sort of pushed back. So I’m not sure but there have been definite points along the way where I thought ‘Ah, you know, this, you know, whether it be the first song.
“The key, I think, in the history of the band is if I know what the opening song is and I know what the closing song is, I think that’s the album halfway done, you know. That’s the key for an album.”
Speaking to NME about ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ back in 2019 and its progress, Smith said: “We did about 17 songs and almost all of them were really downbeat and heavy. There were a handful of others, and I really shouldn’t say this because you’ll go ‘oh no’, but in my head I wanted to do two albums – one after another. One was gonna be upbeat and the other downbeat, but the upbeat one I’m not so sure about now.”
He continued: “Although the concept of what it’s going to be hasn’t really changed, I may have to change some bits of it. It’s kind of pushed me back a little bit because I thought I’d be in the mixing stage by the time we’d finished the festivals, but in fact we’re going to go back and re-record about three or four songs around the time we go and play Glasgow in August. I feel intent on it being a 2019 release and would be extremely bitter if it isn’t. At some point I will have to say ‘this is it’, otherwise we’ll just keep recording like we have done in the past. It never gets any better. We’re due one more session then we’re done.”
He also previously told NME that their first album in 16 years would be “merciless” and would “express the darker side of what I’ve experienced over the last few years” – drawing more on the sounds of classic album ‘Pornography’ as “it hasn’t got any of those songs that lighten the mood at all” due to having lost his mother, father and brother in recent years.
In a four-star review of the band’s live show at London’s OVO Arena Wembley in 2022, NME noted Smith took the time to promise “that the new songs ‘won’t be new for much longer.’”
The review also described the new tracks, sharing: “The ticking clock piano rhythms and rolling bass of ‘A Fragile Thing’ accompany the promise that there’s “nothing you can do to change the end”, while ‘Endsong’ is a stunning, sprawling soundscape to portray Smith utterly lost in a universe where there’s “Nothing left of all I loved”.
“The truly devastating heart of the new material previewed comes with ‘I Can Never Say Goodbye’ – where howling guitars match the singer’s fear of ‘shadows growing closer now” as “something wicked this way comes, to steal away my brother’s life’. You feel that these songs are for those who mean the world to him.”
Speaking to NME backstage at the BandLab NME Awards 2022, Smith took the time to exclusively confirm that The Cure’s next album would be titled ‘Songs Of A Lost World’, sharing: “It’s got artwork, it’s got a running order, it’s almost done! They’re so slow because of vinyl, but it might come in September. I’d rather it just came out. I can’t stand the anticipation.”
He also revealed more about its sister record and his anticipated solo album. “So I’ve been working on two Cure albums, and one of them is finished,” he added. “Unfortunately, it’s the second one that’s finished. [On the other] I’ve got to do four vocals, and there are 10 songs on each album. We’re mixing next month on April 1, so I’ve got three weeks left.”
Asked about the sound of the upcoming records, Smith revealed: “Well the first Cure album is relentless doom and gloom. It’s the doomiest thing that we’ve ever done. The second one is upbeat, and my [solo] one won’t be out until next year.”
Keyboardist Roger O’Donnell previously described the upcoming album as “the most intense, saddest, most dramatic and most emotional record we’ve ever made, and then we can just walk away from it… Listening to the demos, it is that record. I think everybody will be happy with it.”
In other news, fans have recently shared their reactions to The Cure‘s first new single in 16 years.