The Cure - Songs of a Lost World
It's all gone, it's all gone, it's all gone.
As we enter November, one of the most highly-anticipated albums of the year is finally here - the fourteenth studio LP from the legendary band The Cure. The two singles from “Songs of a Lost World”, “Alone” and “A Fragile Thing”, were both fantastic, setting the level of expectations for the album very high.
However, these high expectations are no match for the actual music. “Songs of a Lost World” is The Cure’s best album in decades, arguably since the iconic “Disintegration” back in 1989. The band, close to 50 years into their career, have managed to rediscover all of the things that made them great at their peak, and to implement them all on this record - a truly remarkable late-career effort.
Something that’s impossible to miss about this album is an ever-present, looming, inevitable sense of finality. This is often associated pretty directly with death - something which frontman Robert Smith has said to be a topic he has begun to think about more and more often as the years have gone on. It makes sense, therefore, that it’s a central lyrical theme of the record. However, not only Smith’s signature somber lyricism, and his unmistakable mournful vocal delivery reflect this theme - the instrumentals also have a gloomy, wistful, melancholic feeling to them. Many of the tracks have hypnotic multiple-minute instrumental intros, which fully submerge the listener into the ethereal soundscape and atmosphere of the album, surrounding them with a dark, starlit sky, from which Smith cries out sorrowfully, delivering the news of the nearing end.
The instrumentals on this album are enthralling. Basically every track sounds like it could have been pulled straight out of the ending of a movie in the best possible way; the background synths are incredibly cinematic, and the grand, ethereal, sprawling mixes on all the instruments give the whole album a very tastefully dramatic feel. It’s just a gorgeous soundscape, a dark, beautiful, dreamy journey.
Another thing that’s worth pointing out is that “Songs of a Lost World” has fantastic structuring. “Alone”, the lead single, serves as a fantastic opener and tone setter, plunging the listener into the gothic, grandiose world of the album; the ten-minute closer “Endsong” is a perfect, monumental conclusion, powerfully reinforcing the notion that all good things must come to an end. However, while those tracks, and most of the other highlights of the album (“And Nothing Is Forever”, “I Can Never Say Goodbye”) are otherworldly, slow, mellow tracks, the presence of “Drone:Nodrone” in the middle of the album is a very well-placed change of pace, with its more aggressive, bass-heavy instrumentation and higher intensity forcing the listener to snap out of the trance of the first four songs and be sharp and fully, consciously engaged once again.
According to Robert Smith, The Cure will tour in 2028, to mark the band’s 50th anniversary, and then retire in 2029, when he himself turns 70, “if he makes it that far”. Considering the 16-year gap between their latest album and the one which preceded it, that means there’s a real possibility that “Songs of a Lost World” is the final Cure album. And if it is, then wow, what a way to go out.
9.3/10