The Cure Returns Deep in the Despair of ‘Songs of a Lost World’

Alci Rengifo

Legendary English outfit the Cure emerged from the feverish post-punk era of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, with their own singular mixture of gothic rock and new wave. Now, 16 years since their last album, frontman Robert Smith is seemingly jumping fully into the abyss. Smith has always been an artist who inhabits the dark side, albeit with melancholic whimsies and, at times, even joy. But at just under 50 minutes across eight tracks, “Songs of a Lost World” feels like one collective howl of nihilistic despair. The grandiose loneliness and cosmic questioning of the Cure’s long-awaited 14th studio album is overflowing with ache. 

Written and arranged entirely by Smith, and produced by Smith and Paul Corkett, “Songs of a Lost World” is a fully realized and deeply sad body of work that delves into the despair at the loss of time, the loss of those you love, and the loss of youthful grandeur and illusion. Time gives and takes away. In this we face our own mortality. And at 65, Smith is reflecting, sometimes with regret, and certainly melancholy, as he ponders the briefness of human existence. 

Much of “Songs of a Lost World” (five of which were performed on the Cure’s 2023 ”Shows of a Lost World” tour) alludes to battles with loneliness and heartbreak as Smith stares into the void. The album’s first single, “Alone,” is a grand introduction to the theme of this record, where Smith captures his “overwhelming sense of being very lost, very alone,” as he informs us that, “This is the end / Of every song that we sing,” sounding like an opening salvo at the state of the world and Smith’s own state of mind. The track’s somber and almost hypnotic dirge tells us that you won’t find any attempts on this record at repeating the wonderfully melancholic dreamscapes and lovelorn lyrics of the Cure’s masterful “Disintegration,” or the youthful gothic dread of early Cure works like “Pornography” and “Seventeen Seconds.” But “Disintegration” and the Cure’s doom-heavy early albums permeate throughout “Songs of a Lost World.”

At almost seven minutes, “And Nothing Is Forever” is a beautifully devastating track inspired by Smith commiting to a loved one that he would be with them when they died. (“Promise you’ll be with me in the end / Say we’ll be together and that you won’t forget.”) An orchestra of strings, keys and guitars swell as lyrics reveal the final moments of a life. (“And wrap your arms around me / In a murmured lullaby / As the memory of the first time / In the stillness of a teardrop / As you hold me for the last time / In the dying of the life.”)

The unexpected death of Smith’s elder brother clearly haunts “I Can Never Say Goodbye.” First introduced in late 2022 at the Cure’s concert in Kraków, Smith has stated that he “wrote the music the day after he died, but struggled for a long time to find the right words.” Palpable images express Smith’s pain when he sings, “Thunder rolling in to drown / November moon in cold black rain / As lightning splits the sky apart / I’m whispering his name / He has to wake up.” Ever the poet, Smith then quotes Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” with the lines, “Something wicked this way comes / From out the cruel and treacherous night / Something wicked this way comes / To steal away my brother’s life.” 

The Cure of those glittering odes to young love, such as “Just Like Heaven,” “Lovesong” or “Pictures of You,” has receded. Shaped by the passing of decades, personal losses, and the regret of choices, Smith is gazing evermore at the fragility of it all. The album’s second single, “A Fragile Thing,” is itself a commentary on the hard balancing act that love requires. Like his contemporary Bono, Smith has been married to the same woman, Mary Theresa Poole, for well over 30 years after having met in their early teens. Lyrics like, “Don’t tell me how you miss me, I could die tonight of a broken heart / This loneliness has changed me, we have been too far apart” have the complexity of someone who has been left to pine for another, but knows all too well the challenges of a life together, as they wallow in rue. (“I never thought I’d need to feel regret for all I never was / But all this time alone has left me hurt and sad and lost.”)

Smith is aware of a world feeling increasingly hopeless. Loneliness is a running theme of the new generation as war roars across headlines. “Warsong” and “Drone:NoDrone” bridge the personal with the mood in the air. Smith uses the allegory of someone he kept fighting and trying to mend ties with to capture the broader state of things. “Oh, it’s misery the way we fight / For bitter ends we tear the night in two / I want your death, you want my life / We tell each other lies to hide the truth,” sings Smith over scorching guitars and pounding drums. This is not a protest song, but a howl of despair that ends with, “All we will ever know / Is bitter ends / For we are born to war.” In the energetic “Drone:NoDrone,” Smith literally stares at the barrel of a gun, “Down, down, down, yeah, I’m pretty much done / Staring down the barrel of the same warm gun / Down, down, down / Yeah, I’m pretty much done.”

“Songs of a Lost World” closes with “Endsong,” another extended, immersive track and sibling to the record’s opener. The real heart of this album’s themes is clearest in its lyrics about someone looking back at the long road traveled. “And I’m outside in the dark staring at the blood red moon / Remembering the hopes and dreams I had and all I had to do / And wondering what became of that boy and the world he called his own / I’m outside in the dark wondering how I got so old,” Smith sings. A confessional lament only increases, “It’s all gone, it’s all gone, it’s all gone / No hopes, no dreams, no world / No, I don’t belong / I don’t belong here anymore.” There lies the answer of what is going on in the mind of Robert Smith. Despite the legendary status and culture-defining work, he is but a fragile human. Like the rest of us, even rock gods feel the weight of the years as they pile up. “Songs of a Lost World” finds a singular artist and a seminal band still standing on a hill of glories, but looking forward and realizing the road is shorter, the clock is ticking and the darkness has only grown thicker.

“Songs of a Lost World” releases Nov. 1 on Apple Music.