Knowing when to speak and when to stay quiet is a skill that we should all strive to achieve. In a world of constant bombardment, remaining silent until the right time is a powerful tool. Bowie knew this of course. He took himself away following health scares, regrouped, stayed quiet and then spoke when he felt the time was right delivering a good album and then a true classic. Robert Smith has been a long-time fan of Bowie and aside from any early musical influences, what he has also seemed to have taken from him is this beautiful artistic patience, allowing life to go where it wants to go before settling down and completing something he feels strongly enough about to share with the rest of the world.
Of course Smith and his brilliant band have been engaging with us fans via the dialogue of live shows and whilst they always deliver an almost spiritual experience (even when Smith’s voice is threatening to let him down like it did at their last Cardiff gig) fans will always want the new. Fans want to know what Smith is thinking, feeling, experiencing..this is always the nature of fandom and one can only imagine what kind of pressure that puts upon an artist of such stature. There have been signs via new songs dropped into tours including brief introductions and explanations by Smith and there was the ill-fated comments in 2019 about a new album (something Smith has confessed to regretting) but we wanted to know the full story and now here it is.
Songs Of A Lost World will be filed next to albums like Blackstar and You Want It Darker thanks to its themes of loss and mortality that run throughout and it is every bit their equal however this feels like the start of something more than the finality of those aforementioned albums. Knowing what we know thanks to interviews and stage explanations, we know that Smith has experienced a lot of loss in his life over the last few years with his death of his brother being the base subject matter of ‘I Can Never Say Goodbye’, and we also know that this is not new territory for Smith (it runs through the themes of Faith and Disintegration) but what is new is the sonic canvas that he paints around his words. Sure, you’ll know it is The Cure and you’ll hear echoes of every phase that has gone before, but with this iteration of the band (featuring Reeves Gabrels and the brilliant Simon Gallup) we hear deeper and more nuanced sounds that reveal themselves more to you with each listen. Smith has never been afraid to be expansive with the sound of albums but this time he manages to go as big as Disintegration whilst retaining a deep intimacy. You get gargantuan drums playing over delicate piano phrases, heavy riffs over vulnerable vocals making this one of the most finely balanced Cure albums in many years. This is quality not quantity and the editing and arranging process has truly paid off. Listen to the way ‘Warsong’ absolutely screams at you whilst echo sends Smith’s vocals spiralling from the centre of the piece into the swallowing void of music…a perfect balance.
Balance is key to the sound of this album so that whilst the themes are heavy and there are moments of Pornography claustrophobia it never settles on being pure maudlin. There is always some light and hope. Even when you run through the lyrics of songs such as ‘And Nothing Lasts Forever’, you are accompanied musically by gorgeous piano and star-sparkle synths, or the mountainous closer ‘Endsong’ which marches to a pure post-punk drum beat and where Smith sings “it’s all gone. It’s all wrong” you are guided with guitar parts that riff and wail like Smith favourites Mogwai. It may end with the word “nothing” but somehow The Cure manages not to make this totally downbeat..there may be a slither of light breaking through.
Songs Of A Lost World is not a regressive trip down memory lane, or a moment where people write condescending taps on the back for a band so far down the road. It is an album of great emotional clout, beauty, and insight. Here we have an album dealing with themes so many of us are scared of, delivered with such raw vulnerability and with outstanding musicianship that you sometimes feel terribly sad, sometimes furious and sometimes there’s hope. This is not only a great Cure album that deserves to be spoken about with the same reverence as their earlier work, this is a great album for us now as human beings as we face a constant barrage of images of war and death because whilst these are subjects that can harm you, Songs Of A Lost World permits you to travel through those emotions whilst keeping its hand upon your shoulders. There will always be loss….there will always be hope.
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Review by Simon Tucker
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