Dear God. I have waited so long to write this review. It’s been 16 years since the release of The Cure’s last album, 2008’s 4:13 Dream, and for this writer that’s basically a third of my life spent waiting for this. No pressure, then.
Not that there weren’t signs. The Cure have certainly played live a lot in that time. It’s clear their considerable fanbase is still waiting for them, even if there was concern on internet forums that another Cure studio album might never appear, and wondering if this meant that they might be now be a heritage act, or worse, ending up like some end of the pier freakshow (something they played with in the video for ‘Never Enough,’ now amazingly 34 years ago).
But no. Their tour in 2022 saw them playing a number of new songs, at the time unreleased. New songs can be risky with audiences who by and large are there to hear what they know – but in this case, these were well-received. Nearly thirty years ago, when they headlined Glastonbury in 1995, frontman Robert Smith joked that you could probably buy the new album [Wild Mood Swings, which wouldn’t be released until the following year] at Camden Market; the intervening years mean you can now familiarise yourself with footage on YouTube.
The album starts with ‘Alone,’ which is as fine an album opener as any they have produced – one which holds its own with the likes of Kiss Me’s ‘The Kiss’ or Disintegration’s ‘Plainsong’ (even ‘Want‘ from the unfairly maligned Wild Mood Swings). It sets the tone for the album. This isn’t an album as nihilistic as Pornography, but it fits alongside it, Disintegration and Bloodflowers very nicely.
So no there aren’t any of the more upbeat numbers in the vein of ‘Lovecats‘ or ‘Friday I’m In Love‘, which to be fair, wouldn’t sit too well here. But this is not a difficult album to get into. Whether you’re a fan of many years standing, or you’ve liked what’s been cherry-picked for you by human or machine, this is more than definitely worth a listen. Sure it deals of getting older and loss – but then, these are themes that have been revisited many times on Cure albums. In this case, it’s pretty close to home – since the last album, Smith has lost both his parents and also his brother. ‘I Can Never Say Goodbye‘ features the line ‘something wicked this way comes/ to steal away my brother’s life’ and at the risk of sounding like Bryan Adams, it cuts like a knife.
Yet the most outstanding cut is probably album closer. If you think finishing an album with a song called ‘Endsong‘ is too obvious, just wait ’til you hear it. Perhaps because The Cure first appeared in the days of albums being consumed as a whole rather than skipping backwards and forwards on CDs or streaming services, the whole thing hangs together as a whole. It reflects back to Smith as a ten year old boy, looking up in wonder in his garden as man walked on the moon for the first time, and connecting how he feels with this now as an old(er) man. It’s wonderfully epic – and you can tell why acts like Mogwai have claimed them as such an influence.
And there’s something reassuring about how the line-up has settled. The long-term rhythm section of drummer Jason Cooper and bassist Simon Gallup now are joined by a returning Roger O’Donnell on keys and for his first Cure studio album, Reeves Gabrels on guitar. Live shows have seen Perry Bamonte back on guitar, too, though he isn’t listed as appearing on this album. While they weren’t awful albums, few would rate their last two albums, the aforementioned 4:13 and 2004’s The Cure as among their best. Songs Of A Lost World sees them back, firing on all cylinders and showing why they are so beloved by so many.
Who knows if it’s their last album, or whether there’s more to come? Let us be thankful that it’s here and just as wonderful as we dared to hope it might be. If it is their last (how many times have we heard that?!) it will be a fantastic way to end it. If not, on this evidence they have so much more to give. Let Smith and his merrier-than-you-might-think men deliver it in their own time.
