Album Review: The Cure: Songs Of A Lost World

The Cure merges the past and present in their first release in 16 years. 

Robert Smith and The Cure have cemented themselves as legends in their 45 years and 15 albums, emerging as leaders in the post-punk movement and holding major creative and cultural influence in goth and shoegaze scenes. Led by Smith manning vocals, guitar, bass, and keys, the goth icon is joined by bassist Simon Gallup, drummer Jason Cooper, Keyboardist Roger O’Donnell, and Guitarist Reeves Gabrels. 

The Cure’s longevity can be argued to be traced to the group’s consistent remodeling of their tone, as their first four albums grew progressively darker until a shift into an upbeat sound in 1985’s Head on the Door curated the band’s mainstream success- ultimately ushering in a legendary three album run including 1987’s Kiss me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, and 1989’s Disintegration. 

Despite an eight-year absence of music, The Cure had been active in their lead-up to Songs Of A Lost World. In 2022 and 2023 the band toured globally while Smith drew widespread acclaim as highlighted by The New York Times for his outright challenge of Ticketmaster in concert tickets. 

In their most recent offering, The Cure return to their signature structure of intricate basslines, introspective vocals, and ambient washes of guitar and synthesizers that maintains their accessible pop-adjacent sound while Smith’s lyrics travel across darker themes reminiscent of his earliest works. 

Beginning with “Alone”, Songs Of A Lost World opens with an over three-minute instrumental arrangement of guitar, synth, and percussion creating a dream-like atmosphere signature of The Cure’s wall of sound instrumentation. As Smith leans in delivering the opening vocals, the record commences on a grim note as themes of doom are explored. 

Although The Cure’s latest LP marks a shift back to gloomier tones, poppy earworms are still present in tracks such as “A Fragile Thing”, where flowing lyrics of heartbreak are intertwined with the groove of O’Donnell’s piano melody. 

As Songs Of A Lost World retains a central apocalyptic theme throughout, The Cure are beautifully able to grasp their listener’s attention across the 50-minute run by crafting distinct offerings within each track. This sonic diversity can be found in the back-to-back tracks of “Warsong” and “Drone:Nodrone.” The former swirls in a pool of organ, guitars, and percussion before a stark shift as the next track as “Drone:Nodrone’s” pulsating rhythm brings cues from The Cure’s late 80’s era. 

After 45 years, The Cure’s most recent project displays they are in no position of becoming another legacy band as they successful retain their core sound while revisiting various threads of their past.