The Cure -- Songs Of A Lost World

It shows how little we understand of the functioning of the brain's neurochemistry and SSRIs' effect upon it that a pill that may cause blockages (as it did in my own case) has also been prescribed as a cure for writer's block. In a Late Show documentary aired in 1995, the psychiatrist and author Oliver James gave five artists Prozac to see what effect it would have on their creative output. Two of them – the New Order frontman Bernard Sumner and the poet Alan Jenkins – were blocked when filming began. Sumner, who was working on his Electronic side project with Johnny Marr at the time, was afflicted by a hyper-critical internal voice, and said that the process of writing lyrics was "like breaking a horse". As he wrote, he'd hear repeated in his head: "You can't do this, you can't do this."

I spoke to James about the effect of SSRIs on writer's block. "What the film showed," he told me, "was that once you removed the depression – and Prozac did seem to do that, whether by placebo or not – people could write. When I first met Bernard Sumner he was clearly blocked and by the end of it he'd written some lyrics." There was a hitch, though. "What I couldn't say on the documentary was that he may have done some work, but I'm not sure that it was any good."

"trite" seems a little unfair to me

Absolutely feels like an album opening track - though I haven't seen a tracklist anywhere yet, so I may be proven wrong.

Yeah Apple Music is showing it as the first track of an 8 track album.

Listening to this on Apple lossless now and it does sound quite a bit better

Robert curated a "darker Best Of The Cure" playlist on Spotify. It contains a lot of my favorite songs:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4sqo4XGkDoqPFRQe6bmCXd?si=u73suv6aS5Stl20STpE7Zw

This playlist is GREAT

Spotify, sheesh. I guess Robert's activism stops at Ticketmaster. Hope they clean up on bucket hats, tote bags, embossed journals and mugs

i think we should shame every band on spotify until they stop

just seems inconsistent in this particular case, not to mention counterproductive

I finally have had a chance to sit down and really listen to this a few times. I absolutely loved this in concert but my initial listen through the speaker on my phone felt a little tinny and uninspiring, plus I was rushing out of the door to be a tourist so I didn’t get to Robert’s vocal. Played on decent speakers, the build through the intro felt more organic and was easier to appreciate. It’s a trick they do a lot but they’re very good at it.

I don’t really agree with the criticism of the lyrics. Robert has been writing like this throughout his entire career and I think there’s a good amount of “familiarity breeds contempt” happening for some people, especially when you consider that he’s been writing songs for almost 50 years. I don’t think it’s the best lyric he’s ever written but it’s very, very far from “The doleful cant of a bigot / Blinded by fear and hate”

I cannot wait for this album to be in my hands.

What DJP said, of course. Oddly enough, I haven't listened to it again, not because I didn't like it, anything but, but because I just want to sink into the album in full. (Also, I suddenly realize this is one of the few -- the only? -- Cure single-as-such with neither B-sides nor official remixes, at least not yet. Even "Wrong Number" had some remixes.)

Wrong Number had eight remixes!

Wrong Number had eight remixes!

Wrong Number had eight remixes!

Wrong Number had eight remixes!

Wrong Number had eight remixes!

Wrong Number had eight remixes!

lol what a post to zing-glitch

Do it two more times. You're only up to six.

you can say that again

Sorry sic, wrong number

Hanging Garden only had a couple of live cuts. But anyway I don’t really consider this to be a single - just a song drop.
I miss having bsides to wet the appetite for the album but at 8 song, it sounds like the well of these 6 year sessions was rather dry.

b-but there’s a whole companion album to 4:13 Dream in the can! And a double album! And Robert’s solo albums! That’s what I heard.

But anyway I don’t really consider this to be a single - just a song drop.

So… a single?

wanna SPEAK OUT in defence of the lyrics here
I do of course miss some of the lurid drug mess / kid's book / dodgy sex imagery of prime RSX
but I feel like his life experience has finally caught up to his thematic predilections
and these words are now informed by genuine grief and loss and sorrow instead of just hormones/moping
like, this really is really probably really the final Cure LP and reasonably unadorned meditations on aging and mortality feels like an appropriate way to go out

I listened to all the post-disintegration albums recently and it does feel like his lyric writing really hit a wall around Wish
R.Smith admitted in an interview/s that he was running out of ways to write about the same emotions
all his attempts at cutesy pop giddiness seemed forced and unconvincing (and maybe even age inappropriate somehow)
all his musings on human nature seemed a bit bloodless & not as insightful as all that
but feels like he is invested here
and given that the Cure has been a really monumental part of my music-listening life
& I am reaching an age where I am very conscious of my life as a finite & fleeting proposition
I find this generally pretty moving & good

good post, and I agree

Great post emsworth, nailed it for me.

(Also, I suddenly realize this is one of the few -- the only? -- Cure single-as-such with neither B-sides nor official remixes, at least not yet. Even "Wrong Number" had some remixes.)

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, September 29, 2024 1:38 PM (eight hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

this tradition was already on the way out (at least for rock bands) when 4:13 dream came out

Sure but you would think at least a few songs from these alleged projects that have been lurking about for the past 14 years would crop up as b-sides

maybe they really do have another album in the can

Songs For A RAWK World

why would i think that! robert smith talked a lot about things that didn’t materialize and i have no reason to believe any of it exists

they've (including people other than robert) talked about another album (that's supposed to lean into their pop side) that they also started working on in 2019 but there's no reason to believe it's any of it's anywhere near done given how long this one took

& who knows what happened to his plan for 4:14 scream/4:26 dream though they've played two songs from that live

xp: There was a lot more sarcasm in my head than what made it into my post

but I feel like his life experience has finally caught up to his thematic predilections
and these words are now informed by genuine grief and loss and sorrow instead of just hormones/moping
like, this really is really probably really the final Cure LP and reasonably unadorned meditations on aging and mortality feels like an appropriate way to go out

but feels like he is invested here
and given that the Cure has been a really monumental part of my music-listening life
& I am reaching an age where I am very conscious of my life as a finite & fleeting proposition
I find this generally pretty moving & good

This is it exactly. I feel as well that a lot of artists of this sort of age are starting to come out of the woodwork with new stuff driven by the same thoughts. It is moving to see it. And I think, as you say, that listeners, especially those of a similar age, feel it too. I found reading some of the comments on the YouTube upload of this track quite moving as well.

does "I can never say goodbye" sound like "Kayleigh" to anyone but me

I don't know Kayleigh but I just watched a live clip and Reeves Gabriels goes pretty full Tin Machine on this one

(which to me actually sounds kind of cool, lest anyone read that observation as inherently pejorative)

the Cure will be playing live on October 31st on the BBC, also an interview on the 6 Music Huw Stephens show.

info

TO MARK THE RELEASE OF #SONGSOFALOSTWORLD WE WILL HEAD TO THE BBC RADIO THEATRE, LONDON ON WEDNESDAY 30TH OCTOBER FOR A SPECIAL @BBC6MUSIC SESSION AND @BBCRADIO2 IN CONCERT TO BE BROADCAST ON OCTOBER 31ST. REGISTER FOR THE FREE TICKET BALLOT NOW AT https://t.co/4ikM5XrgHz pic.twitter.com/B4p94kWRqG

— The Cure (@thecure) October 2, 2024

more info:

The Cure to perform for Radio 2 and 6 Music
The sets will be recorded at the BBC Radio Theatre in London’s Broadcasting House
https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2024/the-cure-perform-radio-2-6-music

THANK YOU DJMARTIAN

ARE YOU AS EXCITED AS I AM???
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9LXN_ufL8M
(Never gets old)

this is apparently the tracklist according to some german retailer who put it up before they were supposed to:

alone
and nothing is forever
a fragile thing
warsong
another happy birthday
fugue
i can never say goodbye
endsong

about 49 minutes

Hype level: INCREASING

Quite!

DO YOU WANT TO HEAR 'A FRAGILE THING'?

I actually voted replied no, just to see what they do :-)

If this is true it's intriguing to see that 4:13 Dream's shorter length of 52 minutes - their only since 1985 under an hour - has had an advance.

Vinyl revival

I figured. Hey it got Blur to make a vinyl-length album for the first time ever.

annoying little sequencer bits on A Fragile Thing are annoying