Albums: Songs Of A Lost World

Released on 1 November 2024, "Songs For A Lost World" is the fourteenth studio album by English rock band the Cure. The band's first release of new material in 16 years, with all the songs composed solely by singer/guitarist Robert Smith, for the first time since the 1985 album The Head on the Door. It is also their first studio album to feature Reeves Gabrels and the studio return of keyboardist Roger O'Donnell. 

 

The album took several years in the making, although it was intended for release in 2019, five of the nine tracks had been performed live between 2022 and 2023, dufirn their "Show Of A Lost World", all the songs were written entirely by Robert Smith it wasn't something easy cause Smith had to struggle to find the perfect balance and imaginery for lyrics, finding inspiration from the poem "Dregs" by Ernest Dowson, with themes of loss, isolation, impermanence and mortality.

 

The album has been a fantastic surprise by fans and critics alike, with echoes of "Disintegration" (1989), "Wish" (1992) or "Bloodflowers" (2000), but it's seems hard to imagine the real sound, every The Cure fan has its proper opinion, although this is their most consistent and grateful album in a long time. The album provides visual and textuals, with a strange but proper cover art that features a sculpture by Janez Pirnat titled "Bagatelle" (1975), according to Smith and explained in an article from  November 6, 2024 on Artnet, explains that Robert Smith saw the piece while flipping through a book and almost immediately wanted to use it for the cover.  However, in 2021, when Smith tried to contact Pirnat to use his sculpture for the forthcoming record, he learned the sculptor had died—on the same day, no less, that the musician discovered his work. Pirnat’s widow granted permission and even gifted the work to Smith.  Cure cover artist Andy Vella explains that he pictured it floating in space, almost as a distant relic from a forgotten time; a buoyant force resisting any kind of gravity. 

 

The album opens with the moody and atmospheric "Alone" actually this track was the first single off the album, according to Smith “It’s the track that unlocked the record; as soon as we had that piece of music recorded, I knew it was the opening song, and I felt the whole album come into focus”, the song struggles with the realuty of impermanence and change, next is "And Nothing Is Forever" in which Smith seems to reconcile himself to the difficult recognition of transience as the essential truth of life and offer the possibility of companionship as remedy. "A Fragile Thing" the econd official single of the set, explores the delicate nature of romantic relationships and the inevitability of parting, and then we have the dramatic and atmospheric "Warsong," the album's shortest track, surveys the wreckage from an emotional battlefield seemingly created by two people who can do nothing but fight one another, the percussive "Drone:Nodrone"  picks up the pace and settles into a groove, now this is far from a happy tune, next is the devastating "I Can Never Say Goodbye" heartbreakingly documents the passing of Smith’s brother, Richard, then "All I Ever Am" focuses on the fruitlessness of rumination over personal history and the past.

 

The album final track is the longest a more than ten minutes song and properly called "Endsong" was inspired by "a starlit night that reminded Smith of a similar evening in 1969, stargazing in the back garden with his father when Apollo 11 landed on the moon." Smith reflects, "I grew up in the glorious 30 years from the end of the Second World War—the world that I was born into was getting incrementally better every year.  It just seemed that the world was on an upward trajectory and the moon landing was part of that." However, “around the time I turned 16 in ’75, it seemed like the world sort of stalled and it’s been travelling down ever since." So, "Endsong" perfectly captures that feeling of disappointment when we realize that life does not stay at its peak and the world is not all magic.  

 

The album received a critical acclaim, praising the lyrics, dark sound and of course Smiths's vocals that seems not aging, also the album has been a commercial success, being their first album since their 1992's "Wish" to reach the No. 1 in the UK, also is one of the fastest selling albums of the current year, the wait really worth it, with Smith soundind comfortable and sure as ever, and the band perfectly playing and sound as usual, the favourite part is definitely the first five tracks although the album remain focus and consistent until the end, there is a feeling of loss that haunts across the album, the perfect soundtrack for endings, we don't know what might comes next, Smith suggests he will retire in five years when he reaches 70, rumours of two extra albums has been around, NME quited that Smith ha a second new album finishe and a third is currently on work, who know's, but if the inevitable retire finally arrives, that would be a powerful studio statement for a 45-year career band.

 

Songs Of A Lost World Track List:

 

1. Alone

2. And Nothing Is Forever

3. A Fragile Thing

4. Warsong

5. Drone:Nodrone

6. I Can Never Say Goodbye

7. All I Ever Am

8. Endsong