“Songs of a Lost World”: the lost and found world of the Cure

In 16 years the whole world has changed, but not that of the Cure: “Songs of a Lost World” is a instant classic where time seems to have stopped. The band releases their first album since 2008 on November 1st we listened in preview: guitars, synths, powerful rhythms and Robert Smith who talks about the disorientation of being in a world that makes you feel lost and alone. Today as in the 80s, when the band released masterpieces like “Pornography” or “Disintegration”: these 8 new songs seem to be directly inspired by that mood, but with the experience of a band that has 45 years of career behind it.

“4:13 dream” was released in October 16 years ago, but to find another great Cure album you have to go back even further, to 2000 and “Bloodflowers”. The band has changed in these 24 years (the most notable addition is the presence of Reeves Gabrels on guitar, former collaborator of Bowie) but has never stopped: tours, reissues, anniversary celebrations and live albums. Everything monitored obsessively dto Robert Smith who is frontman, author, and also his own manager – someone who monitors both tour ticket prices and press kits (like the one given to journalists listening to this album, written in first person). But he is also someone who lets slip statements about projects that never seem to come to fruition, creating expectations among fans. This album has been talked about for years now, ed here we are finally: “Songs of a Lost World” does not disappoint expectations, on the contrary.

It’s a job that fits into a specific strand of the Cure’s discography, that of the darkest and most cohesive albums, with a strong sonic and thematic thread, almost concept albums. An idea also strengthened by the choice of an often compressed sound, in which the instruments blend with the voice, as if to sonically represent the sense of oppression and disorientation which is the central theme of the album. The sound, which can already be heard in “Alone”, is that of the 8 songs on the album: often long intros, interweavings that create a sound world that is far from lost, on the contrary.
The Cure is a “lost world”, but also a rediscovered world, that of a band out of time that is nice to finally listen to with new songs.

We can’t wait to listen to this album again – in the meantime here are the first impressions, track by track.

“Alone”

We are in the era of streaming platforms and increasingly shorter songs and the Cure release a 7-minute single with 3 and a half minutes of instrumental intro: this alone gives the measure of the world in which they move.
Guitars, rhythm and synths that intertwine, then the voice that enters (“This is the end of every song that we sing”): it is the song that started the project of this album, born during Robert Smith’s nocturnal walks and from the feeling of overwhelm and disorientation that the singer always says he feels at a certain point in the night.
A song that brings the Cure back to the atmosphere of “Disintegration”, giving both the thematic and sonic tone to the album: dark, compressed, epic.

“And nothing is forever”

Piano and strings in crescendo, then the guitar, then the rhythm: another very long instrumental intro, over 3 minutes. “And nothing is forever” is one of the songs already played live in recent years: in the studio version it becomes even more powerful and emotional. Smith describes it as a song about mortality, about the promise of being at someone’s side in the most difficult moment. difficult: “Promise you’ll be with me in the end/ Say we’ll be together with no regret/For however far away” and again “And I know, I know/For my world has grown old/And nothing is forever /And I know, I know”.

“A fragile thing”

“Nothing you can do to turn it back she said/ Nothing you can do but sing/This song is a fragile thing/ This song is my everything/But nothing you can do to change the end”: “A fragile thing” is a song about the choices you make and the consequences they have on the other people around you.
It was played live for the first time in Milan two years ago: the introduction this time is short – less than a minute – and features bass and drums. While in the central part you can feel the presence of the guitar more, with beautiful embroideries (by Reeves Gabrels?) that make the song more effective than the live version.

“Warsong”

I start with a pump organ, an instrument already used in the past – as in the start of “Untitled” from “Disintegration”, one of Smith’s favorite Cure songs – then drums, guitars and various sound effects enter. The song was born from the cyclical conflicts and reconciliations that Smith says he had with a person, wondering if this is what men are made of, continuous personal wars. Just over 4 minutes, one of the shortest songs on the album.

“Drone: Nodrone”

A distorted bass, the drums; the “drone” referred to in the title is the one spotted above the singer’s house: the song, explains Smith, was born from the frustration generated by the intrusive nature and continuous surveillance of the contemporary world. This is why it is the angriest song on the album, even musically, punctuated by a piercing electric guitar that chases Smith’s voice for the entire song, 4 and a half minutes.

“I can never say goodbye”

The piano is preceded by the sound of a storm, then the drums forcefully enter, for another long 2 minute intro. The song is the mourning for the death of Robert Smith’s brother: the music was written immediately after his death while the words, he says, arrived only after some time and are the story of their last evening together: “Something wicked this way comes/To steal away my brother’s life/I could never say goodbye”. Smith says that singing this song live helped him overcome his grief: in videos of the performances he is often emotional.

“All I ever Am”

Drums and synths, then guitars, with a relatively short intro, 1 and a half minutes. Smith defines it as a song about self-acceptance, about realizing that you are a sum of multitudes, of ghosts, dreams, memories and hopes that come to define the present self.

“Endsong”

Another familiar-sounding intro of drums, synths and guitars: the record ends as it began, with a sister song to “Alone”. Here too there is a long instrumental intro that almost lasts 6 minutes, and the theme of disorientation, of feeling lost and of growing old in an increasingly complex and broken world: “And I’m outside in the dark/ Staring at the blood red moon/ Remembering the hopes and dreams I had/All I had to do/And wondering what became of that boy/And the world he called his own/And I’m outside in the dark/Wondering how I got so old”.
On the tour it closed the band’s main set, on the album it is a 10-minute masterpiece, which ends with Smith repeating “Left alone with nothing at the end of every song/Left alone with nothing” on a distorted guitar and insistent drums.

The Cure are back, indeed they are back.