C’is a dizzying gap. We had to wait sixteen years, following Robert Smith’s repeated postponements, to hear new sounds from The Cure again, since the release of 4:13 Dream in 2008. The cult English group therefore returns with Songs of a Lost Worlda new and fourteenth masterful album, carried by the mourning of those close to the leader of the group with more than 30 million albums sold worldwide.
The announcement of the return of The Cure will have attracted more than one fan. But gather a hundred people in a room and ask them to choose their favorite album from the group: and some noses will end up crooked before they can get everyone to agree. Because The Cure is as suicidal as it is fanciful, capable of going from a foggy goth to Seventeen Seconds (1980) to pop made for radio on Japanese Whispers (1983) through the dark wave 2.0 perfectly executed on the essential Disintegration (1989).
Several generations of fans
As many albums inspired by New Order as The Wire, Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees or Jimmy Hendrix, which gave The Cure this chameleon-like appearance, divisive certainly, but which gave the group its iconic status – and allowed them to passage to touch several generations of fans.
Some will recognize post-punk, others indie rock, gothic rock or even “cold wave”. Certainly, the floury, androgynous and impassive face of Robert Smith, which he still wears at 65 years old, stuck to a quirky musical background, will have attracted coldness, but that in no way detracts from The Cure the intense and passionate character of their music. Deep down, under this modest shell, things were boiling!
Much more than an image of gothic teenagers who only have five minutes to prepare, the members of The Cure have brandished through their music and their appearance a real “statement”: that of saying that far from clones hair, clothing and music of certain U2 fans, they were going to stay apart – remain themselves: and avoid a conformism that would corrupt them.
An album carried by mourning
True to themselves, the English return on this new album to the 8-track formula of its masterpieces Faith (1981) et Pornography (1982) to deliver, and we say it without pinching, their best album since the cult Disintegration (1989). The project, which Smith will have entirely written and composed alone in 2019 – a first since The Head on the Door in 1985 –, is largely carried by the mourning of his parents and his brother.ALSO READ Eddy Mitchell has already chosen his grave facing the sea
The album opens powerfully with “Alone”, a single released ahead of the album and more than six minutes long. And it’s already masterful. The abrupt tempo and guitars mix with the intense layers of synth, an arc that unfolds gently for three minutes before joining in the fatalistic and melancholic lyrics: “It’s the end of all the songs we sing, the fire s He is reduced to ashes and the stars are darkened by tears. »
As if he had never aged, Robert Smith’s stainless voice still resonates throughout like an unloved lamb, as sepulchral as it is delicate. A unique and unchanged hue through which Smith sings, in complete intimacy, of mourning and melancholy.
« Amor Fati »
The tone is set, Robert Smith no longer seems complaining about a world he can’t stand, but hanging on to those who have left him. And the second track “And Nothing is Forever” confirms it. A piano and violins are masterfully introduced before the electric guitar and Smith’s voice shape everything: “Promise me that you will be with me, until the end. Tell me we’ll be together and you won’t forget me. No matter the distance, you will remember me in time. » It feels like you are in front of the hotel or in the middle of a comatic dream.
The same piano introduces “A Fragile Thing”, the only pop-tinged love song whose powerful appearance reveals incredibly fragile lyrics, imbued with deep love: “Every time I kiss you, I want to cry. »
But fate knocks at the singer’s door of inspiration: “There’s nothing you can do to change the ending.” » A feeling of inevitability that persists throughout listening to Songs of a Lost Worldand the sequel, even more rock and darker, drives the point home again: “ But no way out. No way for us to find a path to peace, n“We’ve never found it before,” Smith sings on “Warzone.” “Down, down, down, yes, I’m about done. Staring at the barrel of the same hot gun. Down, down, down, yeah I’m about done,” he continues on “ Drone: Nodrone ».
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Then comes the liberation on the delicate “I Can Never Say Goodbye” dedicated to the brother of the leader of the group, who died a few years ago: “An evil hand came to snatch the life of my brother…”. Paradoxically, the piece offers breathing through the presence of a gentle piano which supports guitars. It’s profoundly sad, beautiful, and purely liberating, before moving into the psycho session that is “All I Ever Am” – certainly the hit of the album: ” I waste my whole life like this, dwelling on time and memories. And all for fear of what I’ll find,” Smith sings. Intimate, we said!
A feeling lingers at the end of the long final arc “Endsong,” on which the lead frantically repeats: “ It’s all gone, it’s all gone, it’s all gone. » Few groups like The Cure can provide so much emotion in just a few notes, capable of creating such a particular atmosphere on pieces that often exceed six minutes. On Songs of a Lost Worldthe English make us feel the deep tear of Smith’s mourning and largely overcome the obstacle of boredom. They are getting closer to their greatest masterpiece, Disintegration (1989), even more than the very deserving Bloodflowers (2000).
A tour planned for 2025
Smith will have time and again tried to put his pen away and announced the end of the group; when promoting Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me in 1987, then at the end of the tour Disintegration Tour. What litanies! After 2008, The Cure did not really disappear from the radar and returned to the stage, its favorite terrain, for thirteen long years.
Everything could make us believe that this time would be the good one, not so much by the advanced age of the rockers as by the tragic inevitability of the album. « The hopes and dreams are gone, the end of every song, and everything stops. We were always sure, we would never change, and everything stops », we hear Smith singing on « Alone ».
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Answer
However, the end of the road still seems far away for Robert Smith who announced a new tour in the fall of 2025, before announcing the end of his career for 2029, when he will reach the age of 70. Time, therefore, to publish new albums, one of which is more joyful and already ready and another, instrumental, in progress. Even if, with Robert Smith, we can’t be sure of anything.
« Songs of a Lost World » is available on all platforms.
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