The Cure
The Cure have never been a band in a hurry. While it’s true that they released six LPs in as many years between 1979 and 1985, this was par for the course for indie bands at the time (The Replacements, R.E.M., Husker Du and many more served up a record every year in the early 80s).
Since that early run, the Sussex alternative rock elder statesmen have only managed to put out an album, on average, every 5 and a half years. A Cure album is therefore always an event, regardless of where the work stands in a library of mostly exceptional work spanning six decades.
Songs Of A Lost World, their first LP in more than 15 years, is very happy to take its time.
On the slow-burning, intensely epic opener Alone, it is almost three and a half minutes before Robert Smith announces “This is the end of every song we sing”. Despite the song’s despairing title, there is a familiar universality to the message of this and many of the album’s tracks. Over a pounding beat, Smith exclaims “We toast with bitter dregs, to our emptiness.” Elsewhere, lines such as “I never thought I’d need to feel regret for all I never was” (A Fragile Thing) and “Mournful hopes for all we might have been, all misunderstood but no way out of this” (Warsong) point to a bleak sense of darkness, hopelessness and loss.
But there is light. There is hope. And there is love. While it’s title might suggest more sombre fair, And Nothing Is Forever skips lightly, driven by piano and strings, with Smith affirming “It really doesn’t matter … if you promise you’ll be with me at the end.”
Ultimately, The Cure have produce a record both comfortingly familiar and exceptionally well produced, but also (and most importantly) essential for our times. The world may be lost, but The Cure have once again proved themselves to be a welcome anchor amidst the chaos.
Matthew Ambrose presents Under The Radar on Tuesday evening at 7pm on Abbey104. Broadcasting on 104.7FM and online at abbey104.com.
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