Just like a dream, The Cure return with new song and album announcement

Boys can cry about this one actually. After 16 long years, The Cure is finally back. There must be something in the air with the new Bon Iver EP, the Oasis reunion, the Linkin Park reunion, and, well, the Jane’s Addiction reunion, but hopefully, The Cure’s album cycle will go slightly better than that last one.

Today, the Robert Smith-led group made two exciting announcements. First, their first album since 2008’s 4:13 Dream—titled Songs Of A Lost World—is officially on the way. It will be here—before we know it—on November 1. The “Just Like Heaven” singers also released the first single (and consequently the first track) from the album, titled “Alone.” Long-time fans of the band can take a deep breath; they probably won’t be disappointed. The song is both melancholy and grand in the exact way one would expect from The Cure, with a lush, three-minute lead-up before Smith’s vocals finally cut in. “This is the end/Of every song that we sing /The fire burned out to ash /And the stars/Grown dim with tears,” he sings. Thank goodness this is really just the beginning.

In a statement, Smith called “Alone” the “track that unlocked the record; as soon as we had that piece of music recorded I knew it was the opening song, and I felt the whole album come into focus.”

“I had been struggling to find the right opening line for the right opening song for a while, working with the simple idea of ‘being alone’, always in the back of my mind this nagging feeling that I already knew what the opening line should be,” he continued. “As soon as we finished recording I remembered the poem ‘Dregs’ by the English poet Ernest Dowson… and that was the moment when I knew the song—and the album—were real.” The poem opens with a similar verse: “The fire is out, and spent the warmth thereof,/(This is the end of every song man sings!)”

Songs Of A Lost World doesn’t come as a complete surprise. In a 2019 interview with Rolling Stone, Smith teased that the band had been in the studio recording 19 songs that were “fucking great,” “so dark,” and “incredibly intense.” “I’ve waited 10 years to do something that means something,” he said. “I think it will delight our hardcore fans. And probably really, really infuriate everyone else. At my age, I’m still doom and gloom.” The planned 2019 release date then fell through and the songs idled until 2022, when the band began incorporating new tracks “And Nothing Is Forever” and “I Can Never Say Goodbye” into their setlists, according to Pitchfork. Those two tracks are set for a live vinyl release on October 1. 

Keep an eye out for the full tracklist (and likely tour dates as well) on The Cure’s website in the coming weeks.