Robert Smith's first album in sixteen years, Songs of a Lost World is quite honestly the best new Cure album you can possibly get in 2024. What more can one ask for, really? It's highly remarkable, commendable, and an achievement in and of itself.
A new Cure album in 2024 seemed like a very distant dream well out of grasp but we've finally come to this reality. Songs of a Lost World is The Cure's first new album in sixteen years, following up 4:13 Dream back in '08, and is their fourteenth album. The group, fronted by the long standing, iconic frontman Robert Smith, has dominated the world of dreamy, nocturnal, shadowy pop music most famously back in the 80's and early 90's. While their output from this century hasn't exactly been much of note (and let's be frank, since '92's Wish, although "Mint Car" from Wild Mood Swings still slaps hard), The Cure have still been highly notable and congratulatory as a symbol and high watermark in pop, rock, goth, new wave, and even popular culture itself. We can talk about the timelessness of "Boys Don't Cry," the iconic trilogy of Seventeen Seconds, Faith and Pornography, the absolute classic Disintegration that has been so universal still to this day (it's even ridiculously appeared in one of the Ant-Man movies recently), or even the fact that Robert Smith still rocks that eyeliner and lipstick like it's '85. We can talk about that until the cows come home. Plenty of rock historians, goth kids, and grown goth adults already have ad nauseum and I don't think I have anything new or insightful to add to The Cure's already cemented legacy, so I won't here.
What I will talk about is the fact that we have a new Cure album and we don't have to speculate what that would sound like today. Songs of a Lost World was entirely written, arranged, and composed by Smith himself and it's arguably his most personal record to date. There are no catchy hooks, sticky riffs or poppy appeal to this record, so don't expect anything remotely resembling a "Friday I'm In Love" or "Just Like Heaven." It rather has a long, intense darkness that shrouds any sort of catchiness or playfulness peaking in. It's depressingly somber and aching but it's all the more dreamy, immersive and ethereal. At eight songs and forty-nine minutes in total length, it's at a perfect length that isn't overindulgent. With its songs leaning towards its heavy, atmospheric sound, it's a seamless album meant to be listened to in full, in a dark room with your head down. I find it quite difficult to pick out individual songs themselves, since this album is such an "album" experience in its own right. You won't be hearing any of these on the radio or an accessibly radio-friendly playlist (not even the couple of tracks that span four minutes).
Songs of a Lost World is a bit difficult to pick apart, but I don't necessarily think I need to in order to get my point across. Its dreamy, massive wall of guitars, synths, drums and bass will weigh you down across its eight songs. The opener "Alone" sets the album up perfectly and mostly ends up being an instrumental through its near seven-minute runtime, until Smith's signature lead vocals creep in at the halfway mark. The fluttering pianos, swaying strings, bright synths, and slowly churning guitars on "And Nothing Is Forever" has a little bit of sunshine peaking out, only it's more like Smith looking up towards the heavens, picturing himself meeting his loved ones soon. Smith's lyricism is a bit more scant across this record than past ones but when they are sung, it's all the more clear, being about death, loss, and the afterlife. Hearing Smith sing lines like "if you promise you'll be with me in the end" definitely strikes a chord and when you hear it being backed by this lush instrumentation that is both dreamy and crushing. "A Fragile Thing" is the closest this album gets to accessibility and it's still in a depressed state despite its glistening synths and guitars that faintly resemble a chirp. The tangled guitars on "Warsong" sound pained and soured while the drumming on "Drone:Nodrone" are memorably explosive and the song surprisingly adds a bit of color to the monochrome. "I Can Never Say Goodbye" is a stunning ballad and an ode to his late brother with striking lines like "something wicked this way comes to steal away my brother's life" that really hit you hard. Despite how slick the guitars and singing are on "All I Ever Am," the song still is too twisted to be on your dad's BBQ playlist.
After listening to the over ten-minute long "Endsong" that closes the record up with its dread and impending empty, bottomless afterlife, you definitely get the sum of what Smith is aiming for thematically on this record. We grow old, we lose those who love us, we prepare (or at least try to) for the end of our lives, and we hope that once we are gone, we reach to those we love and end up being with them too. Smith questions the afterlife, acknowledges his older age, and yearns to reunite with those who are the most important to him who aren't in this life anymore. Songs of a Lost World treks across these themes in a way that's full of dramatics, sorrow, pain, dread. It's all done in a way that only Robert Smith can. After all these years, it's astonishing how timelessly well Smith can sing, perform, and write. Listening to Smith's voice and lyricism over these instrumentals is highly remarkable and commendable. Songs of a Lost World is quite honestly the best new Cure album you can possibly get in 2024. What more can one ask for, really? The possibility of this actually happening today is already pretty incredible to even think about. But the possibility of it being this good? Now that's an achievement in and of itself.
My Rating: 8 / 10
Favorite Songs: "Alone," "And Nothing Is Forever," "A Fragile Thing," "Drone:Nodrone"
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