The Cure -- Songs Of A Lost World

feels like he knows there's a fair chance it'll be their last album and that's scary from all kinds of angles, most more comfortable to enjoy the spotlight before that moment for as long as you can

much not most

I've been re-listening in reverse chronological order in preparation and to put it a bit too bluntly, this better be better than anything they've done since Disintegration. Surprised to find myself liking the first half of the 2004 s/t more than I remembered but the rest... oh boy

― StanM

Hey, “Wish” is not a bad album. But yeah, 90s onwards their track record hasn’t been stellar.

Hard to distinguish for me between the (very real) post-89 drop in quality and my progressive loss of affinity for the music. I sometimes wonder whether I would have any time for HOTD or Kiss me if they came out today.

^ this is also very true, yes. And Wish, I like a lot of the songs, but somehow (even though they have a lot more varied albums) this never felt like an album-like album

The only album they’ve ever put out that is BAD is Wild Mood Swings. I’ve said this before and I will die on this hill.

I feel like I can't criticize the post-Disintegration era (although beyond Wish I honestly don't like any of it really) because I so clearly started listening to really different stuff in 1990 whereas prior to that I was all about the Cure. Now I feel like I'm ready for a new Cure album again so I have unrealistic high hopes for this one, hahaha

(Also Boys Don’t Cry > Three Imaginary Boys but I think that’s a less controversial statement)

i even like a lot of what's on wild mood swings. could even say i like most of it

Yeah but “Club America” and “Return”

anyway i will defend to the death the post-89 cure but i am fine with everyone referring to this new one as a return to form, as that's exactly what the live versions of the new songs have suggested. i am freakin hyped

"club america" is godawful. i'm pretty sure i really like "return" bc i am sick and wrong

Is there a reason that Wild Mood Swings is the only album not on Spotify?

I think it’s because it suxx

I did wonder if it was just that

out of the new ones, "endsong" is right up there with their very best epics

I remember that even though I had Wild Mood Swings at the time, I can never recall actually listening to it. The tour for it was good though! There's a really fantastic version of "Want" from Paris on that tour as an opening number. I really wonder what the deluxe version, if/when it ever emerges, will be like.

Anyway DJP is right about all the other post-89 albums being good to great and the rest of you stink if you don't agree, so there.

I guess Burn is pretty awesome

Yeah agree - I just hope the recorded version sounds as widescreen as it should

It was pretty funny how the first word of this LP emerged via the Hoffman forums - I joked to my friend that it was gonna be released exclusively on SACD - but actually I would be genuinely excited by a well-recorded & mixed contemporary Cure LP - the last few have sounded… not good

I wonder if there will be a single or if they are gonna drop the LP on Nov 1 - the latter probably smarter option

Multiple xp re Endsong!

I hope it's just the album, they can do a single later.

I guess Burn is pretty awesome

Most non-LP recordings by Robert have been v good to fantastic, post-Wish. Play Burn next to How Not To Drown, to someone who doesn’t know there’s 27 years between them, and they’re utterly the same creative artist.

(He should have been barred from mixing sessions after 1994 though.)

Re: post-'Disintegration' being a major fall-off, I felt that way at the time via 'Wish' and then especially 'Wild Mood Swings' (I never listened past that). But getting the b-sides box eventually persuaded me Smith still had it, he'd just gotten really shit at telling the good from the goofy.

So since we're just waiting for this new one, I'll share this again, the "imaginary album' that could have been circa 1996 instead of 'Swings':

https://musicophilia.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/thisisalie_small.jpg

The Cure - 'This Is A Lie' (1996)
[The Wild Mood Swings Era Reconsidered]

01 - Adonais
02 - Jupiter Crash*
03 - A Pink Dream
04 - Treasure*
05 - Home
06 - Waiting
07 - Dredd Song
08 - It Used to Be Me
09 - Numb*
10 - Ocean
11 - Bare*
12 - This Is A Lie (Ambient Mix)

Total Time: 53:43

* From 'Wild Mood Swings'

"Liner notes": The Cure recorded fantastic music during 1995-1996, music that sustained the strengths they had honed over the band's 16-year history, but that also added new dimensions to their sound. Unfortunately, very little of this great music was included on the album they released in 1996, 'Wild Mood Swings,' which tried by failed where previous records had succeeded in the balancing act of pulling together the disparate, manic-and-depressive styles of the band. Instead, the album was inconsistent and disjointed, suffering from poor song selection, sequencing and unfortunate mid-90s production decisions that have not aged well, in the opinion of many fans and critics (and your compiler).
Given the struggles the band had faced at this time--legal issues with a longtime band member and friend, the loss of other members--the relative failure of the album is understandable and forgivable. Perhaps events conspired to make Robert Smith lose confidence in some of the work, and sent him in the direction heard on 'Wild Mood Swings'. Thankfully, the great music they recorded did find release, even if it missed the spotlight of the album, through single b-sides and compilation albums. Unfortunately, at the time and at least until 2004's excellent 'Join The Dots' b-sides compilation, few heard their best work of the period.
'This Is A Lie' is an attempt to imagine what might have been, if the band had made some different decisions about the direction they wanted to take the record. It's evident from these tracks they were especially focusing on incorporating excellent string arrangements into their sound, to great success. Little of this focus is found on 'Wild Mood Swings,' and so only four of the twelve tracks comprising this "alternate history" album made it onto the actual release. Joining those four tracks to eight even stronger tracks that were relegated to b-side status into a succingt 53 minutes show how successful the band's mid-90s album could've been, had they embraced this sound they'd developed, and given it the spotlight. While Mr. Smith has suggested 'Wild Mood Swings' is among his favorite Cure LPs, he also expresses great fondness for the b-sides in his 'Join the Dots' comments, and perhaps a tinge of regret that they didn't make it onto the album as originally anticipated. So I hope he would not be offended seeing them all brought together like this.
This "imaginary album" is consistently powerful and emotionally affecting, echoing 'Faith,' 'Disintegration' and 'Wish' without sounding quite like any of them. It is perhaps most of all remarkably beautiful, almost what one imagines the band might've sounded like if, after touring with Shelleyan Orphan with their orchestral tendencies, The Cure had joined 4AD and embraced something closer to This Mortal Coil's aesthetic tendencies. Had it been released in 1996, 'This Is A Lie' would have been a worthy addition to the band's LPs. Luckily, it still really adds up, when all the pieces are put together ex post facto.

The through-line of that "imaginary album" is the emphasis on strings, and it's an approach I think has untapped potential as a way of taking Smith's epic but spiritually teenage grandeur a la 'Disintegration' and finding a path to something perhaps more sonically befitting his perspective as a not-young person...

That said, if SOALW turns out to be the 'Faith' and 'Disintegration' formula done to near that standard, all guitars and drums and keyboards, I'll be happy dispite the potential arrested development it evinces in Smith and in me...

some of the new songs seem like they're to that standard at least

If the album is disappointing, there will definitely be multiple fan-made comps of live versions from last year’s tour that elevate the material.

"want to hear 'alone'?" on WhatsApp - let's all vote No

13 second snippet if you reply yes

Wish is the best, everybody shut up

you wish

Wild Mood Swings is my fav of the post-Wish ones ("post-Disintegration" is weird as an idea, you can't cut a band's peak in half)

The actual bad song on WMS is Round x3. Return is saved from being Round x4 by those rinky-dink synths. Club America is Never Enough on Bowie beans, which in theory could be excellent or terrible when imo it isn't either it's just sort of alright. Tin Machine wishes hey hey.

Return is great. Club America, Roundx3 and Strange Attraction are the real duds. The rest is ok but nothing great either. Don’t get me started on ‘Want’ which drags on and ooonn

Oops contradicting myself a bit. Let’s say Return (and Trap and 13th) are pretty fun

i think strange attraction is a great lyric with the chintziest possible backing.... therefore i like it

Urgh

I like the calypso breaks.

So much with the Cure comes down to, do you tend manic, or do you tend depressive.

I love "Friday I'm In Love" as much as the next Gen Xer. But depressive Cure was always why they were a lasting favorite, and not just like The Wedding Present (whom I dig) with another accent.

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheCure/comments/1flevta/here_we_goooo/

this is the "alone" snippet they're teasing, pretty good except the drum sound isn't great

^ "am I crazy in thinking it sounds like Slowdive" LOL

Hard to tell from that snippet, yeah drums are a bit weird sounding but at least it doesn’t seem to be laced with nasty little sequenced loops

sounds like reeves gabrels is doing some interesting textural stuff

this could be okay!!! still daring to dream

can i just say i like the 80s sophisti-pop band logo they're going for

Oooh this snippet sounds very promising.

https://i.redd.it/d9jb81psz0qd1.gif

Mary Anne Hobbs on 6 Music has some exclusive news to announce at 12 today.

Could it be the first play of The Cure - Alone, and even a quick chat with Robert Smith?

Just announced first play of alone will be on 6 Music on Mary Anne Hobbs Thursday show.

ALONE
OUT SEPT 26 | 12PM BST | 7AM EST | 9PM AEST
EXCLUSIVE FIRST PLAY WITH #MARYANNEHOBBS @BBC6Music pic.twitter.com/CZbqle5coE

— The Cure (@thecure) September 23, 2024

is she going to ask him what took so long

Sounds like we might get a tracklist too -- fire up your precovers ideas, I'll start that thread as soon as I have it.