Robert Smith of The Cure says he’s been working on a new solo album that’s “an hour’s worth of noise.” He also stated that news about the release dates for that and The Cure’s comeback album will be shared in about six weeks from now.

Smith told Zane Lowe while on Apple Music 1, “The reason I was doing something on my own was for exactly the same reason I was doing collaborations; I’ve always wanted to do an hour’s worth of noise, and I didn’t want it… The Cure, you wait 10 years and then we bring out an album that’s just noise. So it was just like, ‘No’ – That was me doing the rest of the band. That ‘no’ was a band no. So I’ve been just having fun with that really.” 

He didn’t clarify what he meant by “an hour’s worth of noise,” whether he meant something like Lou Reed’s boundary-breaking Metal Machine Music or something less literally noise. The interview was mainly about his feature on Chvrches’ new single “How Not to Drown,” which is the second single Chvrches has released from their upcoming album Screen Violence. It’s not remotely noisy musically, but it is a rather dark, existential song lyrically. 

As for The Cure’s album that Smith said they’d finished in 2019 and planned to release “soon” in 2020, he explained that it has turned into two new albums. “Probably in about six weeks time I’ll be able to say when everything’s coming out and what we’re doing next year and everything…” he clarified. “We were doing two albums and one of them’s very, very doom and gloom and the other one isn’t. And they’re both very close to being done. I just have to decide who’s going to mix them. That’s really all I’ve got left to do.”

The Cure’s last album was 2008’s 4:13 Dream, which was their 13th studio album together. Their current lineup is frontman Robert Smith, longtime bassist Simon Gallup, keyboardist Roger O’Donnell from their Disintegration-era and onwards, late-period drummer Jason Cooper and a relatively new guitarist named Reeves Gabrels, who joined in 2012.

Smith performed some Faith-era songs during a livestream in December 2020. Last year, he was also featured on Gorillaz’ song “Strange Timez.” If he does release a solo album this year, it will be his first solo release ever, even including solo singles.

Photo credit: Raymond Flotat