I’ve been a loyal Cure fan since I was a teenager in the early 80s, so I eagerly awaited this release, and I’m not disappointed. It’s the perfect autumn album (like many Cure albums) and follows their style on groundbreaking albums like “Pornography” and “Disintegration”. But unlike “Disintegration” that between all its melancholy had two or three songs you could call pop, there’s no pop song to be found on the new album, so it’s closer to “Pornography” but naturally has a more mature sound. But that can be expected from an album with that title and song titles like “Alone”, “And Nothing Is Forever”, “Warsong” or “Endsong”.
I know that doom and gloom is not everybody’s business, but for long-time Cure fans like me it’s almost a dream come true after 16 years without new material. Go hear it if you’re a fan.
I’ve got it queued up to listen to today. I think I liked the two early release tracks, although like most of The Cure’s non-pop tracks, I think they take a few listens to appreciate.
For all the fans from way back when, I’m guessing this line from the Guardian’s 5-star review hits as hard as it did for me.
Songs of a Lost World feels like the Cure growing older alongside that section of their audience who discovered them in the late 70s or 80s, and who now find themselves staring down the stuff that usually starts affecting you in middle age: the loss of peers and accompanying intimations of your own demise; the realisation that a chunk of your life that still seems vivid actually exists in an increasingly distant and alien past.
Thanks for guiding me to the Guardian review: it’s a great read I wholeheartedly agree with. The album also had a glowing review at allmusic.com, but the German Rolling Stone downvoted it to 2.5 stars (I haven’t read the review. A good friend of mine, my musical friend, who’s also a long time Cure enthusiast, was also disappointed and agreed with the RS review. Let’s see how the album will be viewed in a few years.
I turned on the radio in the middle of a song off of it the other day, and, despite never having heard Pornography, only heard from word of mouth, that was my exact thought. I thought “well, this is obviously The Cure, but not as pop-oriented, so perhaps from Pornography? No, too mature and 1% less melancholy than I’ve heard Pornography was.” I was about to say that the instruments and production also gave it away, but in those elements, the song I heard still managed to sound a lot like the late 80s.
OK, I’m on my second trip through the album and I agree with @EinsteinsHund, it’s fantastic. It hasn’t even taken multiple listens to get sucked in. “I Can Never Say Goodbye” is the only one that wouldn’t be in the top songs on their other albums. And even that one might grow on me.
Here’s the four star review of the American Rolling Stone, which does nothing but celebrating the album, IMHO deservedly. As I mentioned, the German RS slammed the album in their print version, but puts that bad review (by Arne Wilander, one of the best German rock journalist I usually admire) against a different, five star glowing review in their online edition. I don’t know if that controversy was needed, because everything else I read about the album so far was positive.
Thank you very much for that article, it’s great. As the British would say, I’ve always thought that Robert Smith is a good bloke, and that article confirmed my assessment, I liked how he went against those terrible monopolists Ticketmaster and Live Nation (we don’t have them here in Germany, but Eventim instead which is a similar pest). I was just reminiscing with a dear friend of mine who’s not even a big Cure fan how we’d like to have a beer with Robert. My favorite quote from the article:
“If I go back to how I was when I was a younger man, my plan was to keep doing this till I fall over,” Smith said. “My idea of when I fell over wasn’t this old.”
Open Culture is my other favourite webpage: sometimes I am just too slow to relay it. Ninjae’d by a couple of days, but it bears repeating, and be it only to bump this thread:
Just got time to watch and I agree, it’s really great. We had a great wave (as we called that music back then) discotheque in a nearby town, the Roxy, a former movie theater. They played the Cure, the Smiths, the Sisters Of Mercy, the Mission, Depeche Mode, Killing Joke, Human League, you name it, and when the Cure in this concert played “The Walk” or “Close To Me”, I felt beamed back 40 years ago into that disco and the good times I had there.
I loved how Robert forgot the lyrics to “Friday I’m In Love”, probably their biggest hit which he must have sung hundreds of times, but like a real pro he just carries on and laughs it away later. What’s most astonishing is how his voice has held up, he still sings in exactly the same quivering tenor as 45 years ago and hits all the right notes. Great stuff.
