The Cure – Songs of a Lost World
Although Bloodflowers has its champions, The Cure released what many considered their last great album in 1992 with Wish. Robert Smith had been promising new material, but few were optimistic that we would ever again hear anything worthwhile from the legendary band. And then new songs began creeping into live performances: in October 2022, Latvia witnessed the debut of two tracks that would eventually bookend the new album – “Alone” and “Endsong”, which opened and closed their main set in Riga, and surprisingly, they didn’t sound out of place at all. Two years later, Songs of a Lost World was released, and Cure fans were almost uniformly satiated: “Their best since Disintegration,” was the general consensus, and after living with the album for two months, it is hard to argue the sentiment was hyperbolic.
“Alone” and “Endsong”, like most of the songs here, feature extended instrumentals before Robert Smith’s ageless voice enters, evoking desolate portraits of loss, isolation and mortality. I read somewhere that Smith now looks indistinguishable from the writer’s “ageing, alcoholic great-aunt”, but whatever pact he made with demonic forces to keep his voice sounding so young is clearly working, it is truly astonishing how vital his vocals remain.
While the album lacks a pop highlight like “Just Like Heaven” or “In Between Days”, it doesn’t need one – it’s not that kind of album. The placement of “And Nothing Is Forever” early in the tracklist is a masterstroke; for some, it is overly saccharine, while for others, it evokes beauty comparable to ‘Plainsong” and “Pictures of You” at the start of Disintegration.
Similarly, “Warsong” and “Drone:Nodrone” are essential to the pacing of the album; their heavy, droning tones recall the gothier, edgier Cure from the early 80s and the latter brings to mind the piercing guitar squalls from the opening track of Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me. This is the fouled marrow of the album that prevents the skeleton from succumbing to assonant shallowness. And it is followed by what could be the absolute highlight – “I Can Never Say Goodbye”. I am yet to read a negative opinion about this gorgeous, affecting lament on the death of Smith’s brother, and only the sublime “Endsong” has attracted a comparable amount of adoration from fans.
Songs of a Lost World turned out to be a complete surprise, a career highlight that ranks with The Cure’s very best, and whether it is ultimately Smith’s final testament, or the beginning of an extended goodbye, it is a stunning piece of art.
-markjamie
