On Nov. 1, The Cure came out with their first album in 16 years, “Songs Of A Lost World.” The LP is the band’s first number one album in the UK since “Wish” in 1992. Spanning 49 minutes over eight tracks, the album is also the band’s shortest runtime since 1982’s “Pornography.”
The first track of the album, “Alone,” opens with a relaxing, repetitive instrumental introduction that gracefully eases the listener into the album’s dreamy, yet sorrowful, landscape. The instrumentals are empty and echoic, with lyricism inspired by Ernest Dawson’s poem “Dregs” belted by Robert Smith as he sings, “This is the end of every song we sing / The fire burnt out to ash, and the stars grow dim with tears.” Smith’s achy vocals levitate the listener in angst, lost in wistful wordplay.
“And Nothing Is Forever,” second on the record, is a love song beginning with an almost hopeful serenade that cascades into a lamentation of impermanence.
“A Fragile Thing” is a grim song crowding the ears cornering the listener into anguish-fueled lyricism and sweeping them into an anxious conversation between two lovers. Smith laments the fragility of love and his doubt of it while being suffocated by its inevitable end.
“Warsong’s” intense, resentful guitar introduction is chaotic and stressful until it descends into poetic angered lyrics, representing Smith’s nihilistic cynicism toward the world and its gruesomeness. He repeats, “For we were born to war,” surrendering to the inevitability and prominence of violence in his world.
“Drone: Nodrone” differs from other songs on the record with its intense and upbeat intro featuring some techno and spiraling into overwhelming lyrics. In the face of the tragedies grieved in “Warsong,” Smith submerges into chaos with the unknown terrorizing him as he grasps at fleeting happiness.
“I Can Never Say Goodbye” feels like a dissociative episode — cloudy and dazed. It directly represents Smith’s emotions surrounding the loss of his brother. Desperation and regret are displayed through naturalistic imagery until the song slows and calms. Here, the theme of grief becomes heavily solidified within the album.
“All I Am” is insistent in its sound and lyricism. Smith stresses his immobilizing and relentless anxiety. He wants more than anything to let go of his constant overthinking, but he fears losing a part of himself. This song feels like an identity crisis.
“Endsong,” the last of the album, has a bludgeoning instrumental intro spanning approximately six minutes and 20 seconds. Although incredibly long, the repetition metaphorically beats the listener over the head with the album’s conclusion. Smith laments his old age while he is “Staring at the blood red moon.” Blood symbolizes death, the loss of innocence and perhaps the cynicism of growing old. The song broods for over ten minutes, making it the longest on the record. The lyrics “Left alone with nothing at the end of every song” mirror those found in the first track. Smith relentlessly repeats “nothing” until the song dissonantly fades into silence.
“Songs Of A Lost World” feels like an empty gothic cathedral, where one can hear their own thoughts echo throughout as they would in a lonely mind. The atmosphere of the songs tactfully suspends the listener between a dream and a nightmare, common to the confusion experienced when wrestling to comprehend the atrocities occurring regularly in our world. Even in “Disintegration,” their album written in lieu of Smith’s horror in turning 30, Smith was occasionally playful and carefree, jumping from thought to thought. His lyricism has now matured and evolved nihilistically in his older age, planted in his sorrowful worldview. In an interview with The Times, Smith explained how his view of mortality has evolved into realism rather than a naive romanticism of death depicted in his earlier work.
Although the album’s chief themes are loneliness and grief, it remains deeply comforting to the listener — especially following the election, a time of confusion and distress for millions. In “Songs Of A Lost World,” Robert Smith demonstrates his definitive mastery in the art of articulating emotions through music, doing so in a way very few songwriters can. Smith has stated that he does not plan to retire until 2029 when he is 70, leaving room for possible future projects from the legends. Regardless of what may come, The Cure has more than exceeded expectations with their brilliant “Songs Of A Lost World.”
