Review Summary: After sixteen years The Cure return with the best album they have done since 2000
One of the most interesting thing that has happened in music these last few years would be the return of several veteran as well as a few long broken up groups who returned to release new albums for the first time in years and even decades. Last year saw the return of the Drop Nineteens while 2024 saw fine new albums by bands like Buffalo Tom, Camera Obscura, The Decemberists as well as Los Campesinos. As excellent as the albums those groups put out were one of the best records released by a legacy band this year has to be Songs of a Lost World.by The Cure.
Their first new music since 2008’s 4:13 Dream this album has been several years in the making according to Robert Smith who entirely wrote, composed and arranged everything himself. Initially the album was supposed to be released in 2019 and several of its numbers were performed live during their 2022 and 2023 tours. Now the record is finally here and I can safely say that this the best album they have done during the aughts.
At eight songs the lyrics see Robert Smith and company at their most introspective weighing in on subjects like mortality, personal loss and the struggles of growing older. The record does a remarkable job of continuing the Cure’s ability to draw the listener into a deep emotional soundscape with the group’s signature fusion of post punk with Smith’s meticulous arrangements and the band’s always inventive instrumental backing. If one member acquits himself well here it’s now permanent member Reeves Gabriel whose guitar work on Songs of A Lost World is nothing short of electrifying.
As usual with Cure albums several of the songs feature long extended intros before Robert Smith’s voice enters the picture. Both the opening track “Alone” and the closing one “Endsong” are prime examples of this. Both feature Atmospheric keyboards, layered guitar work, rhythmic bass lines and crashing drums that envelop you in lush cocoon before Smith’s vocals come into the picture. Of the two “Endsong” is the most cinematic sounding at over ten minutes long. For about six minutes deeply layered keyboards, driving guitar and bass and waves of crashing drums build tension until Smith’s vocals glide for the remaining time as he reminisces on a starlit night that reminded him of a similar evening in 1969, stargazing in the back garden with his father when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. The track’s spectral instrumentation makes it the perfect piece to end the album.
As I said at the beginning one of the album’s themes deals with issues of mortality and finality of life. Two of the best songs on here tackle that very issue. First is “And Nothing Is Forever” an emotive song about a promise Smith made to a friend of his in their dying days to “Promise you'll be with me in the end” that is held together by haunting piano intro before Smith devastating vocals chime in over the song’s reflective sounding keyboards and guitar. The other song “I Can Never Say Goodbye” is Smith’s heartbreaking reflection on the death of his brother. On this deeply emotional piece Robert Smith fragile voice mediates on the impermanence of life singing a haunting chorus of “Something wicked this way comes/From out the cruel and treacherous night/Something wicked this way comes To steal away my brother's life” over the band’s spine tingling instrumentation.
Of the remaining four numbers “Warsong” is powered by explosive synths and pummeling drums as Smith laments on loss of hope of how a relationship might have been spouting hard hitting lyrical lines like “We tell each other lies to hide the truth/ And we hate ourselves for everything we do” Then “All I Ever Am” and “Drone:Nodrone” shows that the record is not all slow tempos with two of the disc’s most upbeat arrangements despite their gloomy lyrics.
In the end the real highlight of the record is the fantastic “A Fragile Thing”. It has all the elements of the Cure’s poppier side with bittersweet lyrics and the type of extremely memorable chorus that only Robert Smith can create that is all tied to a driving bass line and the brightest melody on the whole album. I can bravely say that it easily joins the pantheon of the Cure’s best songs like “Just Like Heaven”.
I have been following the Cure since college and have pretty much loved their excellent run of albums with both Disintegration and Wish being my particular favorites. As for the discs they have done since 2000 they were okay but not great. However. now with Songs Of A Lost World The Cure have finally released an album that can be considered as one of the best of their career.
Published
[Rating241221501]
