Songs of a Lost World

The Cure, 16 years since their last studio album 4:13 Dream, have finally released Songs of A Lost World on November 1st. Officially announced on the 26th September, The Cure’s fanbase has been patiently waiting for their 14th studio album, which features eight extensive tracks on the album. Widely known for songs like Friday I’m In Love, Boys Don’t Cry, and Pictures of You, Songs of A Lost World brings about a whirlwind of emotions with its striking composition alongside the lyrics.

“Our songs have always had that element of a fear of mortality I suppose, it's always been there since I was young, I mean I’ve wrestled with it since I was 8 years old, but as you get older it becomes real.”

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Initially, I found it difficult to fully focus my attention on the tracks in their entirety, as the instrument-heavy composition of the tracks dominated over the lyrics. Upon listening to it for the second, third, and then fourth time I found myself entirely consumed in the universe of Songs Of A Lost World. Exploring themes of the human condition such as mortality, loneliness and heartache, the album resonates strongly with the current state of the world in which we’re living in. Their lead vocalist/guitarist, Robert Smith composed all of the tracks on the album, which so far has received critical acclaim with praise for Smith’s vocals, melancholic composition and lyrics.

The artwork was designed by Andy Vella, a graphic designer, and conceptualized by Smith. The chosen centerpiece of the cover art is the sculpture Bagatelle, sculpted in 1975 by the Slovenian sculptor Janez Pirnat. In an article by the Creative Review, Vella stated that he pictured the sculpture as “floating in space, almost as a distant relic from a forgotten time; a buoyant force resisting any kind of gravity.” Vella’s intention was to capture the desolation of the album through the cover art, creating an asteroid-like free flotation through space. The cover art is animated for both Apple Music and Spotify.

The tracks on the album include various references to prior works by The Cure such as the reference to The Loudest Sound and Out Of This World in Alone, Pictures of You and Lovesong in And Nothing Is Forever. In true Robert Smith fashion, there’s also a reference to the Beatles in Drone

The fire is out, and spent the warmth thereof,
(This is the end of every song man sings!)
The golden wine is drunk, the dregs remain,
Bitter as wormwood and as salt as pain;
And health and hope have gone the way of love
Into the drear oblivion of lost things.
Ghosts go along with us until the end;
This was a mistress, this, perhaps, a friend.
With pale, indifferent eyes, we sit and wait
For the dropped curtain and the closing gate:
This is the end of all the songs man sings.

Songs Of A Lost World takes on a somber yet simultaneously yearnful tone. Alone, the first single and introductory track to the album, is an almost 7 minute long song inspired by Ernest Dowson’s poem Dregs. In short, the poem explores human life through its inevitable end - death. Touching on themes of loss, regret and vulnerability, we see the same recurring themes in Songs Of A Lost World. In an interview with Robert Smith about the album, he opened up about the struggle he went through when attempting to articulate his relationship with mortality. From his perspectives, most of their works have had this underlying tone of the fear of death, or rather mortality.

“So this song was just an attempt to reconcile myself with something that had happened. There’s nothing I can do to change it, so I thought that perhaps by memorializing it it would make it easier for me to deal with.

And Nothing Is Forever is the second track on the album, written by Smith as a reflection of his past actions towards a loved one. The song, written about a broken promise to a loved one, was a means of him reconciling with his past behaviors. Expressing profound vulnerability, this interview with Smith allowed me to appreciate the album from more than just a personal perspective of relatability. This track, alongside A Fragile Thing and I Can Never Say Goodbye are ones which particularly stood out to me. On one hand I was able to deeply relate to the lyrics and on the other, the compositions of the songs evoked a sense of poignancy.

“Love is the most enduring of emotions, it’s the most powerful emotion, it’s incredibly resilient. And yet at the same time incredibly fragile.”

One of the most interesting tracks on the album might just be Warsong, as it holds more relevance than ever in today’s political landscape. Smith’s idea behind the song was not only to illustrate the current state of the world, which is full of unnecessary wars, and as a result unnecessary casualties. On a more scaled-down view of the song, he also wanted to illustrate the slow realization every adult goes through that not everyone is generally good until proven otherwise, but that it's actually the opposite.

Something wicked this way comes
From out the cruel and treacherous night
Something wicked this way comes
To steal away my brother's life
Something wicked this way comes

Lastly, I Can Never Say Goodbye was written as a way for Smith to heal the loss of his older brother. As Smith explained it, his older brother was the one who played a big role in his upbringing, which naturally led to an outpouring of emotions when he lost him. Smith recalls the death of his brother as an experience in which “I needed to somehow get what I was feeling out of me but I couldn’t understand what it was.”

Smith emphasized that the main goal of this album was to be able to touch on universally personal experiences each of us go through - loss and heartache, love and disappointment. Towards the end of Robert Smith’s interview, he provides us with his favorite tracks from each of the 13 studio albums which best represent the mood for their 14th studio album.