Songs of a Lost World - The Cure
Well worth the wait?
The Cure were always a band I had heard about and was interested in, but I never found the time and drive to listen to them. Between Chino Moreno of Deftones’s apparent influence from The Cure and the occasional excited mentions from my more goth leaning alternative peers and friends, I had a lot of intrigue when I finally did sit down and listen to some material from the group. The Cure is an English rock band formed in 1976, who have had lots of influence on goth subculture via their aesthetic and lyrical themes. Their 14th studio album, Songs of a Lost World, continues that long career with 9 songs and a lot of hype to live up to after a 16 year gap in albums.
The album opens with “Alone”, a nearly 7 minute track that sets the scene amazingly well. The immediate standout for me is the bass provided by Simon Gallup, with his horribly fuzzy bass tone sticking out like an awesome sore thumb within the dreamy soundscape and against distant, snappy drums. Said soundscape gradually thickens over the course of almost 3 and a half minutes, before reeling back to make room for Robert Smith’s vocals and this periodic, faint twinkling that I assume are guitars. Despite having an opening that I find to be slightly too long, the gentle, almost bittersweet vocal delivery paired with the bed of shifting sounds more than makes up for it with an amazing payoff.
Speaking of long openings, “And Nothing Is Forever” follows with an intro just short of 3 minutes. While the instrumentation of this opening is a little busier with a quicker tempo, piano, washing strings, and that already familiar metallic bass, two long intros in a row make it feel slightly played out. Regardless, the vocal peaks of “I know, I know” are simultaneously saddening and satisfying, highlighting how the album neatly treads the line between sweet and bitter as well as you’d hope from veterans of both tones. The tone permeates through the instrumental portions of the outro, but does feel a bit long winded given the lack of changing instrumentation. Most of the songs build up slowly as opposed to my more familiar changing parts, creating both beautiful moments of catharsis when the extended instrumentals finally climax, but also a bit of repetition when Robert Smith’s vocals aren’t the icing atop this particularly large cake.
“A Fragile Thing” follows, with a structure I can follow more easily with instruments that pull in and out to highlight either the peaks of the song or the specifics of each instrument. The lead guitar melody in the chorus portion is very catchy and meshes perfectly with the open instrumentation, but does highlight how I struggle to tell when the guitar is playing in some songs. While not at all a criticism, I couldn’t tell where the guitars were on the previous two tracks, if they were there at all. I think it made the experience even more interesting for me, and it made portions like the lead guitar as well as the grumbling bass stick out even more. This was the easiest to immediately get into so far, even if the lyrics are as touching and occasionally heart wrenching as they can be without making it a difficult listen.
Afterwards comes “Warsong”, which bears a lot more forward guitar than the previous tracks. Wailing guitars mix with plucked strings very effectively, creating a nice, prolonged opening that transitions nicely into the vocal part. The song unfortunately feels short, having yet another long opening but not the same length as its predecessors to make sure there’s enough happening after said opening. I enjoy the individual pieces, but I admittedly haven’t found myself seeking out this song as much as “A Fragile Thing” or “Drone:Nodrone” due to a prolonged opening and the fact that it feels as though it ends very early. Regardless, this is just an average track amongst strong ones, making it the weakest only by comparison.
The aforementioned “Drone:nodrone” is the 5th song on this 8 song album, and it begins with feedback and a very distorted bassline that is layered with my favorite drums on the album and some interesting electronic elements. This serves as a much needed push in energy, with a higher tempo, busier drums, and some interesting changes in the chorus that highlight a bit of urgency compared to the other thick-as-syrup songs on Songs of a Lost World. A highlight aside from the bass is the final pre-chorus(?) where Robert Smith holds the final note in a particularly satisfying way that I never would’ve thought of, but I can’t seem to not imagine now that I’ve heard it. With so many dreary songs both before and after, it creates contrast and emphasis that make things like the opening to “I Can Never Say Goodbye” even sadder and gentler by comparison. This is a highlight of the album, and a very important piece of the whole.
As mentioned before, the next track is “I Can Never Say Goodbye”, which serves as a cooldown from “Drone:nodrone” with gentle piano, gradually swelling electronics, and a much gentler bass tone within the array of sounds. The distorted guitar on the track is quite interesting, as the distortion allows it to almost slowly mesh into the backdrop of sounds as it holds notes, causing this sort of gradual fade that makes the note changes leap out and the held notes sink into a cushy, fuzzy wall of sound. While not my favorite on the album, I think “I Can Never Say Goodbye” is a great transition back into the more somber sound.
That somber sound is again continued with “All I Ever Am”, which features a very heavily distorted, oddly warm bass opening amidst more electronics and another more energetic drum performance. I feel as though drummer Jason Cooper can shine on the more open songs like this one, with the spaces in the music filled with shimmering cymbals and a snappy snare drum. Just as this is a highlight for him, the chorus is an easy highlight of Smith’s performances here. His vocals often part to allow the synthesized strings to shine through, and the wistful melody they provide is only another piece to make this my favorite song of the album.
The fittingly titled “Endsong” clocks in as the longest song of the album, and starts with 6 and a half minutes of building instrumentals, ranging from thumping drums that hardly use cymbals, guitars that soar over the slab of noise, electronics and synthesizers that dance with one another, and a sense of atmosphere that had been hinted at earlier, but I feel fully comes to fruition finally. While not my favorite song on the album, it has the heaviest emotional beats and the best atmosphere despite such long instrumentals that were hard to wade through initially. Even with such a young sounding voice, you’re reminded most explicitly now of how Robert Smith is 65 and counting, and it creates a sort of juxtaposition between the age in his writing and the youth in his tone. “Endsong” feels like the perfect ending to Songs of a Lost World, and it makes all the long stretches of ambience on the album come to a nice, bittersweet conclusion.
The album feels long, but not absurdly or negatively so. The length can be best compared to those fun nights where you glance at the clock and go “it’s only 6??”, meaning it’s hard to feel unsatisfied or unsatiated after such a thick album. Whether it’s the thick and snarling bass or Robert Smith’s sweet vocals, this album brings a great atmosphere and cool melodies that are hard not to warm up to.
Best Song / Worst Song
Drone:nodrone / Warsong