Music review: After 16 years of waiting, The Cure is back!

Reviewers discuss two just-released Music albums: Songs of a Lost Worldthe big return of The Cure and Zouzou by Philippe Katerine.

“Songs of a Lost World”, timeless return by The Cure

Initially planned for 2019, the new album from the legendary group is finally released, all in grace and melancholy, 16 years after their last studio work, 4:13 Dream (2008). All the songs on the record are written, composed and arranged by The Cure frontman, singer and guitarist Robert Smith, a first since the album The Head on the Door in 1985.

Critics' opinions

• Odile de Plas: “It's an album that I listened to religiously and we're gradually getting over it. Songs of a Lost World is a summary of everything The Cure have been and still are. It feels great to see that Robert Smith's inspiration is slowly returning. Songs of a Lost World is an album that can be listened to from start to finish, which could be compared to Disintegration (1989) for the length of the pieces, this haunting dark side. Robert Smith expresses his sadness and his complaint with this magnificent voice which he has preserved perfectly. The bass lines are a real backbone for the album, after so long The Cure continue to produce this sound that belongs only to them.“

• Joseph Ghosn : “Songs of a Lost World is a very good, unexpected rock album. We feel that these are songs forged for the stage, songs that let themselves be desired, quite slow. It's an album that can be listened to over the long term, with loops and many things that navigate the disc, calls to the memory of Cure fans. For me Robert Smith is someone who essentially works on fear and I find that Songs of a Lost World is a Pantheon of what he has already done. It’s an album to tell its listeners to take back time. The Cure offers us here a record that works enormously on the memory, with hypnotic songs that grab you and stay in the mind. It's a very beautiful album, very contemporary and Smith's vocal range hasn't changed an inch.“

The album was released on November 1, 2024 by Polydor.

“Zouzou” by Philippe Katerine, a musical exposure

Last July, Katerine presented to the whole world one of the singles from this new opus, “Nu”, on the occasion of the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games. The full album is finally revealed. To compose and arrange the 17 songs on this new record, Philippe Katerine surrounded himself with accomplices from his previous tour: the multi-instrumentalist Adrien Soleiman, and Victor le Masne. Other musicians summoned here: Flavien Berger performs the gentle Woolfian title A room of my ownor Philippe Katerine's own daughter, Edie Blanchard, who sings on the aptly named Edie's song — a clever piece of imitations, which allows the voices of Angèle, Clara Luciani or Zaho de Sagazan to dialogue together in a mischievous title.

Critics' opinions

• Joseph Ghosn : “There's a lot of nostalgia and irony on Katerine's part. I was taken aback when listening to the album. We're really in this idea that it paints a portrait of a world that doesn't is no longer there as if he was trying to make up for lost time With his songs Phillipe Katerine always asks himself the question of how to tell a story Here, he places himself at the crossroads between Michel Berger and Chaton, proposing as an answer to expose. this somewhat helpless aspect that we have in the face of a world that is too violent. He has a very beautiful way of telling the story of self-defeat and finding a little happiness and sweetness in it. Zouzou remains a very joyful, catchy and above all very eclectic album.”

• Odile de Plas: “You have to give the record time to settle in. I find here everything I like about Philippe Katerine. The minor scales, his love for French melody. I find that he came out of this somewhat simple romp in which he was in recent years He returned to much more poetic and suggested images We hear again this art of linking many things which, on paper, have nothing to do with each other. Zouzou reminded me a lot of his mid-career albums, darker but with lots of vocals and above all real composition.”

The album was released on November 8, 2024 by Cinq 7 / Wagram. Philippe Katerine will be on tour in April 2025, it is Zouzou Tour :

• April 11 in Rouen
• April 15 in Floirac
• April 16 in Toulouse
• April 17 in Lyon
• April 18 in Casseneuil du Poitou
• April 23 in Nantes
• April 24 in Rennes
• April 29 in Lille
• April 30 at Zenith in Paris

Inrocks' favorite: the album “Young Girl Forever” by Sofie Royer

• Caroline Boinet : “Sophie Royer gives us a pop album tinged with a nice dose of irony, under the influence of Todd Rundgren and Carole King. Through her songs, she takes up the concept of the young girl conceptualized by the magazine Tiqqun, a critique of the process of capitalist and patriarchal appropriation of the young girl to make the female body a commodity. Listen to it!”

Sound clips

• Chanson Alonetaken from the album Songs of a Lost World de The Cure, 2024
• Chanson Chez Philou (el Café bar)taken from the album Zouzou by Philippe Katerine, 2024