2 weeks Ago By Damian Jones
The band's 14th studio album was released last Friday (November 1) The Cure ‘s Robert Smith has revealed that his wife Mary Poole Smith helped him finalise the tracklisting for ‘ Songs Of A Lost World ’. READ MORE: The Cure – ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ review: a masterful reflection on loss The band’s 14th studio album was released last Friday (November 1), during a week which saw them play two shows at the iconic BBC Radio Theatre before performing their new record in full at London Troxy’s venue the same day their album was released . Back in 2019, the frontman said the new LP had been shaped by his “experience of life’s darker side” following the deaths of his mother, father and brother.
Now, speaking to BBC Radio 6 Music’s Huw Stephens , Smith opened up about how his wife helped him to put the record together. He said: “I was finishing the doom and gloom ones..
. and [Mary] said no, no, no your best albums are the ones that just have a couple of..
. more upbeat tracks. She was right.
I wanted to finish everything, because I thought that’s only fair to all the songs, like they’re all little children – I don’t want to pick favourites.” The Cure’s Robert Smith, 2024 CREDIT: Sam Rockman. His comments come after he previously said that the band have another new album in the works that’s “virtually finished”, with a third record in the pipeline too .
Back in 2020, Smith told NME that the band were hard at work on “two new albums and an hour of noise”. In a more recent interview with Matt Everitt, he spoke about the wealth of material – including fan favourite ‘Another Happy Birthday’ aired by the band on tour last year , but not featured on ‘Songs Of A Lost World. “For the oldest song on this album, the demo was done in 2010,” he explained.
“They stretched all the way through. The bulk of them, probably five of them, have been written since 2017. Three of them: one of them was 2010, one was 2011, another was 2013 or 2014.
There were so many songs to choose from. “This is jumping about, but we recorded about 25 or 26 songs in 2019. We recorded three albums in 2019; that’s always been the problem.
I’ve tried to get three albums completed. After waiting this long, I was like, ‘Let’s just throw out Cure albums every few months!’ Everything with hindsight, you think, ‘Really? I could have done that a lot better’.” Smith added: “It will work out this time.
Having finished this one, the second one is virtually finished as well. The third one is a bit more difficult because, well if we get that far..
. Talking about the third album, you see what I mean? I just can’t help myself.” This comes after Smith also recently explained the long wait for ‘Songs Of A Lost World ‘ and meanings behind recent singles ‘Alone ‘ and ‘ A Fragile Thing ‘, as well as revealing how he intended for The Cure to come to an end at one point in 2018 , and how he thought dynamic ticket pricing was “a scam” and “driven by greed “.
In a five-star review of ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ , NME concluded: “Merciless? Yes, but there’s always enough heart in the darkness and opulence in the sound to hold you and place these songs alongside The Cure’s finest. The frontman suggested that another two records may be arriving at some point, but ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ feels sufficient enough for the wait we’ve endured, just for being arguably the most personal album of Smith’s career. Mortality may loom, but there’s colour in the black and flowers on the grave.
” Related Topics Indie Robert Smith The Cure.
