The Cure -- Songs Of A Lost World

aka the new album that's been in the works forever. A two track vinyl live release of two songs from it or at least the sessions is due for RSD this year but more importantly, the band's social media just started updating to this:

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:kqdyhnklmmv34nmml6btyqv6/bafkreifbbsc3hwgk7xgverfik65bt57fol3akselqd3co4w2yzwq6qndwy@jpeg

So...something's up.

new album! at some point in the next 3-5 years!

Apparently the source code contains "The Cure- Blackout"

Lead single maybe?

I just got this framed

https://static.musictoday.com/store/bands/5341/product_600/2ndaustin514819.jpg

Last time the Cure released an album it came a month after a lengthy period of growing Cure hyperfixation came unstuck when receiving Three Imaginary Boys for my 11th birthday and happening to have my head fairly close to the speaker at 1:46 into Subway Song. My then-easily shook self didn't feel like listening to them again until shortly after 4:13 Dream had passed ahem.

I knew a guy who used to carry around a briefcase full of Cure cassette tapes, official and bootlegs, wherever he went.

can't wait!

man i wanted this for so long. i've become so depressed and disillusioned with everything that i just assumed it would never happen. and i want it to be like 'the cure family' ― every still living past member needs to contribute. especially pearl. and lol. and boris. i want jeanette fucking landry on handclaps goddammit. omg, this fucking band.

Yes I popped that image into an editor, cranked up the contrast and revealed a lovely blurry crunchy textured photo of something. Ancient lace maybe?

curefans.com has a contest, you can win a vinyl copy of the album if you guess the correct release date

http://curefans.com/index.php?topic=9835.0

my guess: 2037-02-29

Tomorrow. It's tomorrow. I already have a copy. You wish you were me. (I'll repeat this every day and one day I will be right.)

So excited

god imagine if there was a new Cure album that didn't have totally risible artwork

(also I really like the songs played live I've heard so far)

Signed up for the mailing list.

I half expected a "we're excited to announce our new logo" mail.

Robert took heightened control over artwork in '97 and it's almost exclusively sucked ever since.

Design agencies named after CBBC arts and crafts shows were not the way to go.

You mean it hasn't been Andy Vella this whole time? I thought that was the whole idea!

I weep for the days of Parched Art, Cure used to have consistently awesome cover art!

Vella came back for 4:13 Dream. That and Greatest Hits are the post-Galore artworks I like best. For a while the Cure used smART, which afaik is Robert himself directing Stylorouge - Five Swings Live, Bloodflowers, Trilogy, the self-titled album. All hideous and/or shockingly shoddy for a major label band.

I like the s/t art tbh, I think it’s very sweet

I enjoy the album title being listed separately, a la Portishead.

the new songs were honestly my favorite part of the show I saw last year

Currently a slew of rumors flying all day that a supposed release date and physical art for the album is floating around. We'll see.

Looks like November 1 date

hopefully that's the album and not just a single drop

finally!!!!

did it say what year?

god imagine if there was a new Cure album that didn't have totally risible artwork

(also I really like the songs played live I've heard so far)

― Cognosc in Tyrol (emsworth)

Let’s be honest not even classic The Cure had good artwork. Most of it is looks lazy or is not very aesthetically pleasing… imho their best artwork is usually for compilations and I’ll assume the band were not too involved in the art direction of those. Their best album covers imho are:

- Join the Dots
- Mixed Up / Torn Down
- Japanese Whispers
- Standing on a beach / staring at the sea

Wellllll I would go into bat for 17S, Faith, The Top, HotD, KM3 and Disintegration as all being visually distinctive and aesthetically pleasing! As well as vibing with the contents..

Plus a lot of the single sleeves are cool too

They certainly are miles above eg Bloodflowers / The Cure . 4:13

I remember seeing Bloodflowers in a shop and being absolutely shocked, thinking it must have been some kind of mistake or a mocked-up promo sleeve made by the work experience kid at the HMV store

three imaginary boys has a great cover. fridge

Moka you're insane, the Cure have some of the best singles cover art of any band, ever

given the timeframes they've been working with i assume 1 november is when they'll announce the album properly, not the release date

Wellllll I would go into bat for 17S, Faith, The Top, HotD, KM3 and Disintegration as all being visually distinctive and aesthetically pleasing! As well as vibing with the contents..

absolutely, these are great album covers. Disintegration is particularly amazing. The difference between it and alleged-sequel-album Bloodflowers is astounding.

Moka coming with serious challops. I still have my longbox, lol, faith cover mounted to a piece of black paper somewhere, total classic cover

three imaginary boys has a great cover. fridge

Undy’s artwork for the WMS LP / singles / adverts feels like a reclamation of the hated-by-RS Imaginary sleeve. Household objects and heightened, unheimlich lighting.

Chill chill lol I don’t think it’s bad by any means, some of it I do think is decent (Faith and Seventeen Seconds in particular are cool) and very tied to the music within… also yeah I wasn’t considering singles artwork, there’s some brilliant stuff in there I agree.

I don’t think their artwork is anywhere as iconic as their music though

*ducks*

Seventeen Seconds used to be my favourite album cover ever. I ripped it off twice for my first "band" at school.

I can't and won't fault their 79-96 artwork at all. Apart from Concert (which I guess goes for the bootleg look but that's not a good look). Even the lurid toytown of the WMS era I enjoy a lot.

https://i.discogs.com/uVdoAfCAxpxxeNnvoRXBixGCUWG5TUFF00mbVrSO8TI/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:599/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTQyNDkz/NS0xNDc3NzA2MDYy/LTk1MTEuanBlZw.jpeg

i hate to be the heavy winded puffed up overbearing guy once again, but that's some fairly iconic artwork you got there, friends.

Hope that's not a joke. That's such a nice piece of cod-Garrett design.

You know what is terrible? This art for the Australian 7" of A Forest. But if you own a copy (I have a moderately beat up one) the aesthetic distress is neatly offset by the Discogs median price.

https://postimg.cc/4H3pLRt7

Ah dammit. Anyway.

Even the angle of the song name adds to the overall air of car air freshener.

Cure album covers poll?

xp lol yes and then the bold design choice to use yet another random and inappropriate font for Another Journey By Train

I do love these early Cure artefacts though - esp the Australian ones, they did some pretty brutal small venue touring here in the early days - and these slightly off-brand releases kind of speak to a time before they became a properly global concern

another favourite!

Happily Ever After with the flag wavers is another bizarre favourite - which I first saw in Michael Ochs' 1000 Record Covers book years before I knew what it was, wondering why it wasn't part of the sleeve collages in the Wish and Greatest Hits booklets.

Kinda looks haflway between SMart the TV show for real, and Hipgnosis (the latter fitting as the comp is the Cure's own A Nice Pair with its similar unrelated imagery).

Btw the Bloodflowers sleeve is a Picasso compared to the booklet, which seems to have been designed on Microsoft Word with Times New Roman like Robert lost a bet, or like someone having made a CD-R of an internet-only release and wanting to make it seem more legit. Actually it's almost a (less interesting) dead ringer for that anti-design style that followed/still follows in the wake of The Life of Pablo.

Poll idea sounds fun

absolutely not joking re: jset cover art. to me, it belongs in the record cover hof, alongside other striking surreal imagery like pink moon, roger dean stuff, bitches brew, funcrusher plus, etc. hyper realistic infinite cartoony scenes instantly burned into my memory. trippy, but functional. very classic.

84-86 singles are probably what I’d consider the apex of their visual identity

That 'Jumping Someone Else's Train' cover I would say is more of a Linder Sterling style lift

Xp sorry I meant 84-87, doh

Photos going around of posters now on public view in the UK similar to the cards announcing the album title and date.

I just hope they didn’t settle for a live album with the new songs

Isn't that what REM did with New Adventures in Hi-Fi, sorta?

some people got postcards with the release date in the UK: https://www.nme.com/news/music/the-cure-send-fans-postcards-confirming-new-album-title-and-release-date-3793374

oh they were already mentioned. my bad

I love that @thecure appear to have announced the release date of their first new album in 16 years with a single poster outside the local pub they played their first gig at in 1978. https://t.co/BJqNGjlRWW

— Alex Meehan 👨‍💻 (@alex_meehan) September 13, 2024

I can't believe how excited I am for this album. It's one of those last things before I die wishes.

Retweeted by Reeves:

The Cure @thecure have announced the release date of their first album in 16 years, by placing a single poster outside the pub they played their first gig in 1978.

The Railway, Crawley, Sussex.

Now that’s cool….and two fingers up to the usual corporate hype. pic.twitter.com/rNlWqvafbi

— Sacha Lord (@Sacha_Lord) September 15, 2024

The official FB account and I'm sure others just shared out shots of the Crawley poster and the card and the date and all so yeah, it's all happening.

(Annnnnnd I will say if we get a tracklisting soon -- like, actually soon -- then yes, I think a pre-covers effort is necessary.)

Annnnnd per someone who would know, we have a website:

https://www.songsofalost.world/

Thought the release date might be the code to unlock, but no such luck in either American or British date format.

Er, it is the release date in UK format

ha, yeah, I realized I hadn't quite scrolled far enough to get the correct year

seems the album is being released exclusively as a carved stone

There'll be a USB stick with the flac files embedded within, just requires some effort of the listener...

if you join via the songsofalost.world link there's an "if you want to delve deeper, join the WhatsApp community" link

DOES ROBERT SHOUT ON THERE TOO?

ONWARDS!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37mTYDlm5sE

interesting - I get the feeling he sometimes says things he hopes are going to become real just because he said them, but then he gets insecure and more months go by again, imho - it's a miracle this ever got finished

Dunno, sounds like most of these songs were written years ago and that insecurity made him endlessly tinker with them

I liked all the new songs they played when I saw them 2 years ago so am fairly hopeful for this

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

the new material i heard recordings of sounded like a very deliberate attempt to make disintegration 2 (though idk if it will be better at that than bloodflowers since i haven't listened to bloodflowers in ages)

The new songs sounded very good but as always the main risk is Robert ruining them in the production (cheesy sound effects, shouty voice mixed way above anything else, etc.)

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.

production is bad enough to kill any enthusiasm i had, which is a shame because the song is otherwise good

the mix is so muddy except for those hideous drums crashing through it

album is only 8 tracks (despite robert saying in recent years that it would be 10 or 12 tracks), no titles yet except "alone" is the opener of course

it being that few tracks might be a more promising sign?

8 long songs is probably better than 12 long songs in avoiding being a slog

https://www.songsofalost.world/ they updated the website with a clip of "endsong" which also sounds muddy and hideously compressed

i'm not really enjoying their choice of titles

the drums on Alone are a relief tbh. There are.. certain other popular drum sounds that could have near sunk this for me.

Sounds great, drums and all

I was going to say, I don’t get the complaints, ufo. Sounds very lovely and rich, opening minutes made me think of later Cocteaus a bit.

Simon Price sez he’s heard it in full for a review for Record Collector and that it’s wonderful.

I mean it's very Disintegration but I'll accept that

ordered the cassette for a true hi-fidelity listening experience

it's very Disintegration

Just in time for fall!

Something in the mix does sounds off, a shame because I do like the actual song a lot, but in music that is so based around textures I think a bad mix stands out more.

this sounds like jesu, down to the mixing (which is good imo)

hearing pretty much no muddiness and this is a youtube upload. everything is crystalline... great fucking song too, wow

fuck is this gonna be the real bloodflowers

even the album cover is kinda good????

sorry to use an internet catchphrase about this but we're so fuckin gback

Blown away, wow.

Agree on the Jesu comparison. It's a good song.

yeah I don't get the muddiness complaints. it's no more muddy than disintegration. Mix is better than Underneath the Stars where everything was jacked up to 11.

Maybe the music has been mixed to play loud, so turn it up!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx9SVAtMkJM

What happened to their guy David M. Allen? He produced the Top through Wish. I don't want to listen to the Top but dang all those other albums sound so good to me. New song doesn't sound bad from a production standpoint but it doesn't sound good to me either. Longing for Dave Al's epic atmospheric lushness on this.

Dunno sounds a bit like a slog. I miss the melodic side to their dirges but maybe it’s a grower

Not down with Reeves. I assume that’s him on Irritating Guitar.

Thought this was good. Have listened to lots of live versions already and it was nice to be able to properly hear the melodies & changes.

I listened to it on a decent system (albeit via a Spotify stream) and did feel it was lacking a certain widescreen quality - but perhaps nothing is ever going to sound as VAST as the first time listening to Plainsong as a teenager

But I still suspect there is a better and more spacious mix that would sound better - although it is 6am here and I was cautious with the volume, will Turn It Up! for play 2

Re Irritating Guitar - ! - was prepared to be pretty annoyed by Reeves here but assuming that is him then I think it works - just a slightly off element to stop it being too syrupy - kinda reminded me of the weirdo guitar parts in Disintegration (the song)

there is some kind of delayed/reverbed noodling just before the vocals come in, mixed way down - can’t even tell if guitar or keyboard - but I liked that too - already hearing more interesting musical choices than on the last couple of albums

"hideous drums", "irritating guitar" sounds promising!

The Hoffman lot have said Alone's Dynamic Range is a 6, so that could explain the lack of 'widescreen'

it's very compressed and most of the guitar and piano are buried in the mix behind the main synth strings - the opposite of disintegration where everything is crystal clear!

i always thought Disintegration sounded a bit murky/muddy - but in a good way! kind of like you are listening to it thru the sonic equivalent of the gloom and shadows in the cover art.

did most of my listening that LP on a walkman so who knows how that distorted my perceptions. have just ordered the cassette of the new album, maybe it will come alive on cheaply manufactured type 1 magnetic tape!

Don't hate me, but I'm underwhelmed. The lyrics are recycled from everything he's written. The intro is pointlessly long. The music has no structure or melody. And I agree with the drums and guitar being bad.
It's no "If Only Tonight We Could Sleep", "Plainsong", "Sinking", "A Thousand Hours", or "The Last Day Of Summer".
At least Robert sounds better than on the last two records.

Sounds lousy, I agree, and Jason Cooper sounds (a) worse than a drum machine, by some margin, and (b) like he's just barely remembered to hit each and every beat, his timing is just lousy and continuously off in a way that's almost impressive in its bloody-mindedness.
On the plus side Robert's vocal is pretty great and the lyrics are solid in a perpetual-adolescent way, even epic. I'll admit I got chills toward the end.
With a far better mix this might reach the grandeur it aspires to.

This song absolutely kills live

Bass guitar tone is glorious.

Jason Cooper

It's kind of a mystery, because when I (many of us) saw them last year, he sounded pretty good, and I've never liked his playing before. But for all we know this track was recorded 10 years ago.

they started recording in 2019 and finished the album in august

One note a day.

I loved this live. I imagine the mix sounds amazing and expansive when cranked on headphones during a walk through a decaying city.

Sounds lousy, I agree, and Jason Cooper sounds (a) worse than a drum machine, by some margin, and (b) like he's just barely remembered to hit each and every beat, his timing is just lousy and continuously off in a way that's almost impressive in its bloody-mindedness.

the atmos mix is available to stream via amazon already & is apparently nowhere near as brickwalled as the stereo mix so i expect it should be a clear improvement

(b) like he's just barely remembered to hit each and every beat

a good thing imo

i don't love cooper's playing here but i don't hate it, my real issue is the way the drums sound - they're going for big epic 80s drums but they don't actually sound like drums do on 80s records & the sound is rather harsh

Idk closest reference is plainsong and that’s a song that’s 35 years old and it sounds as “widescreen”. Everything sounds very plain. I do like it either way. Robert Smith’s voice is always pleasant.

*And it doesn’t sound as widescreen.

"plainsong" is the opposite, there's plenty of space for everything (though it's much sparser) and it's not compressed to death

compare that to the piano & guitar noodling on "alone" at around 2 minute mark which you can barely hear underneath the synth strings

i like the harshness too, it feels very deliberate. don't really need this to sound like Disintegration.

the atmos mix is available to stream via amazon already & is apparently nowhere near as brickwalled as the stereo mix so i expect it should be a clear improvement

― ufo, Friday, 27 September 2024 02:35 (two hours ago) link

Really? I have Amazon Music right now.

I was also worried as the YouTube rip sounded brickwalled to me, tho I enjoyed it. This HD mix is the way to hear this. Everything is separated out and nothing is buried, you hear the piano and guitar cristal clear and the drums didn't seem to stand out the same way. Simon's Bass really shines through. This is going to be the way to listen to this album!

Does the guitar line remind anyone else of "The Top"?

Actually reminds me, fancifully I admit, of "Why Can't I Touch It" n' all.

Also listened to it through Beats Headphones.

https://media.pitchfork.com/photos/66f46970b4ab78deb97e498f/master/w_960,c_limit/The-Cure-Songs-of-a-Lost-World.jpg

ROBERT SMITH CREATED THE SLEEVE CONCEPT, AND ANDY VELLA, A LONG-TIME CURE COLLABORATOR HANDLED THE ALBUM'S ART AND DESIGN. THE COVER ART FEATURES 'BAGATELLE', A 1975 SCULPTURE BY JANEZ PIRNAT.

Hey at least there are no splash cymbals

Is that good? Splash cymbals have been a Cure hallmark since the Lol drum days.

I like that the E in the band name contains a little thumbs up.

Listened to this on proper speakers last night, I like it. A lot better than I was expecting, tbqf.

(also welcome back JiC!)

Yeah on second listen this is sounding better and better. I just wish the guitar was higher and there would be more 6 string bass noodling

Also weird to complain about a long intro, I mean... that's long been a thing with these guys and I think it really helps to set the mood! Absolutely feels like an album opening track - though I haven't seen a tracklist anywhere yet, so I may be proven wrong.

It was the opener for their tour set list so I expect it’s the first track of the album

Also weird to complain about a long intro, I mean... that's long been a thing with these guys and I think it really helps to set the mood!

When I told my wife (lifelong Cure fan, unlike myself) about this part — "It's seven minutes long but there are no vocals until minute four" — she laughed immediately.

The long intro is great. The sound of the song is great. The lyrics on the other hand are so cliched and trite. They sound like a parody or AI comped imitation of an overly depressing Cure song. Feels very intentionally hitting on keywords people may find emotional or sad. The 3cd version with the instrumentals may be necessary for this album if the rest of the lyrics are this laughably dramatic.

We are talking about the Cure here.

There's part of it that feels like: oh, this is what Joy Division might sound like if they'd lasted another 40 years.

Yeah the lyrics have become their weak spot since WMS, ponderously laboured when they used to be impressionistic and whimsical. From what Robert has been saying, his inability to come up with words spontaneously and organically is the main reason their output has dwindled to a halt.

I read an interview with Neil Finn years where he claimed all those hooks and songs and melodies come relatively easy to him, but that the lyrics are the real struggle

Even at Disintegration, Smith had begun struggling — vividly remember a TV interview with him miming Simon posting a sheaf of lyrical ideas under his bedroom door when he was holding up the band for days trying to write

“Cut Here” feels like a real ending point for his facility, and even then the busy melodic filigrees and contrapuntal play in the vocal lines were a throwback.

Famously/infamously/apocryphally, Daniel Lanois locked Peter Gabriel inside a barn and made him finish the lyrics to "So".

maybe Bernard Sumner can come over and help write some lyrics

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

The vinyl versions of the last three Cure albums all had bonus tracks.

I think they're offering a 2LP for the vinyl, so unless it's 12 minutes a side (or 3 sides + etch type thing) they'll need a bit more material!

The deluxe cd edition comes with a second cd of instrumentals (I assume versions of the regular songs). That’s a first for them.

"Deluxe Edition in 6-panel digisleeve includes the album and instrumentals on two CDs, plus a Blu-ray with Hi-Res stereo and Dolby Atmos mixes." - yeah, sounds like the Karaoke versions, no remixes

how very odd

New track

The Cure - A Fragile Thing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7sZlKuh8gA

The Same Deep Water as You - Vibes

Hopefully this is the weakest tune on the album (although I am feeling cautious re Another Happy Birthday)… I guess I like it fine on one listen and maybe it will grow on me a bit but I find it a kinda indifferent - one of those mid-paced almost-pop tracks like Maybe Someday - I reckon there is another arrangement sans skippity drum pattern that I might vibe with better but so it goes!! But not like Alone where is actively wanted to relisten and felt joy there was a strong new Cure song.

These are my feelings about the Cure on the internet!

Oh boy, that is actually really great (if a bit unproduced). Feels like they discovered a 5th song on that 1991 pre-Wish demo session

Ha ok now I want to listen to it again with that in mind!

Album Tracklist:

The Cure - Songs Of A Lost World track list from the promotional email sent out this evening. #TheCure #SongsOfALostWorld pic.twitter.com/Habc07Tjzn

— The Cure Forever (@TheCureForever_) October 9, 2024

Thank you djmartian

I looooove this

There is no fucking way that "Drone:Nodrone" can ever possibly live up to what I'm imagining in my head, but I love that title. It better be like 16 minutes long.

The deluxe cd edition comes with a second cd of instrumentals (I assume versions of the regular songs). That’s a first for them.

― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Monday, October 7, 2024 2:33 AM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

"Deluxe Edition in 6-panel digisleeve includes the album and instrumentals on two CDs, plus a Blu-ray with Hi-Res stereo and Dolby Atmos mixes." - yeah, sounds like the Karaoke versions, no remixes

― StanM, Monday, October 7, 2024 3:01 AM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

how very odd

― assert (matttkkkk), Monday, October 7, 2024 3:38 AM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

the instrumental version of the album was definitely a value add for me and why I plunked down for the deluxe version despite not having a Blu-ray player. I tend to enjoy that sort of thing, I guess. It's amazing what a different perspective you get when you can better hear what's happening behind the vocals, even on well-produced music

I just listened to A Fragile Thing on headphones and enjoyed it much more - bass sound is great

I ordered the album on cassette because listening to Disintegration on a Walkman is one of the defining experiences of my music-listening life and I reckon it will be a kick to do the same with this album

having said that I am tempted by the "hi res" stereo version as well

those of us who have been buying Jethro Tull deluxe CD editions for the past decade expect a blu-ray with hi-res versions of the album

Shit, I just listened to that and plain enjoyed it. Didn't need to hold it up to the canon or ask what should have been done better, just a good Cure song like I haven't heard in decades. EXCITED.

weirdly no "another happy birthday" on the album but that was the weakest of the songs they were playing live so i don't mind

i still don't love the production on "a fragile thing" but it doesn't do anywhere near as much damage as it did on "alone"

oh I hadn’t clocked that Another Happy Birthday was missing, interesting

I listened to the live recording only once, because I wanted to have an almost virgin experience right now. Hearing this in HD sound is an engulfing experience. Can't wait for this album.

The Cure are on the front cover of Uncut Magazine on Sale Friday in the UK, with an exclusive Robert Smith interview.

1/6 Whatever’s ailing you, we’ve got @thecure! Robert Smith opens up about Songs Of A Lost World and much more in the new issue of Uncut, in shops on Friday or available for pre-order now: https://t.co/19BMG2NqoB
Includes a FREE 14-track CD curated by Kim Deal! >>> pic.twitter.com/3Xe3FEVUZE

— Uncut Magazine (@uncutmagazine) October 8, 2024

First printed review of the new Cure album, in Classic Pop magazine (issue on sale with Human League on the front cover)

5 stars, calling it a masterpiece

They gave 5 Stars pic.twitter.com/YyEBif7j1X

— WitchHouse raver (@kampfbeagle) October 10, 2024

I wonder if anyone here is on an embargo :-)

*crickets*

The part about Robert getting better at playing piano though. I'm sure he plays some keys, but most of them must be Roger's.

dunno - this feels like a mostly solo album. I heard somewhere that all the songs were credited to Smith only (first time since HOTD).

the main difference in terms of actual songwriting contributions are that no one else's demos made the tracks he was considering for the album - since kmkmkm usually at least a few of simon's tracks would make each album but he didn't use any of them this time.

Roger tended to get a few b-sides up each album, right?

i know roger wrote the music to "fear of ghosts" and "out of mind", and "homesick" came from him & simon jamming to some chords written by lol, he's probably written others over the years but idk which off the top of my head

i think most of them have contributed songs over the years but simon's the most significant in terms of writing after robert

Weren't "Kiss Me" and "Disintegration" (and "Wish"?) built out of collaborative demos, with everyone contributing ideas?

from kmkmkm through to 4:13 dream the general creative process was that everyone submitted demos, they'd all discuss which ones they liked the most, and then robert would try come up with vocal parts for whichever ones he felt like, taking into account the band's feedback to some degree

from what he said in an interview a while ago they still did that process with everyone submitting demos for this album, but he just didn't end up using anyone else's ideas this time

if you listen to simon & robert's demos they're usually pretty fully-formed in terms of arrangement. i think it's been said that some of the others (perry iirc) tended towards less fleshed out ideas that required more input from the rest of the band though

i've seen people say "another happy birthday" was based on a bloodflowers-era demo from perry so maybe it was never considered for this album & instead is planned for that second half-finished album?

The London Troxy promo show will be streamed live on The Cure's youtube channel

(for free, the promo mail also said)

Reviewed at NME with 5 stars

looks like the embargo is smashed, but those subversives at the NME

The Cure – ‘Songs Of A Lost World’: a masterful reflection on loss
https://www.nme.com/reviews/album/the-cure-songs-of-a-lost-world-review-lyrics-3801637

Robert Smith and co’s first full album in 16 years deals in darkness and death, but with flowers on the grave

By
Andrew Trendell

Andrew Trendell
https://x.com/AndrewTrendell
@NME
News Editor | Journalist (NCE/NQJ) | Ex-consultant + producer for
@SomethinElse
+
@BBC6Music
| Ex-
@Gigwise
Editor.

New Album also reviewed in the new issue of Mojo:

The new MOJO, starring @DavidBowieReal and a CD of premium sci-fi rock. Plus @thecure, @officialcult, Supertramp, The Saints, @EzraCollective, @idlesband, @Manics, King Crimson, Tina Turner, @tompetty, Kim Deal, Faces and more. Info: https://t.co/p0Z56MrfZK pic.twitter.com/2aIgwHlrbk

— MOJO Magazine (@MOJOmagazine) October 10, 2024

Mojo: Issue Details 373 December 2024
https://www.mojo4music.com/magazine/latest-issues/mojo-373-december-2024-david-bowie/

I really wonder what was behind Perry's reappearance on the last tour. It doesn't sound like he's played on the album and it's not like they needed a 6th musician on stage. Can't help but feel like this was a favor to him (maybe to get him some needed extra cash)

The cash could be a factor but IIRC he at least makes some "Friday I'm In Love" royalty coin, such as that may be these days.

the Mojo review is by Victoria Segal as mentioned by John Mulvey on Twitter/X

xp yeah that might provide a steady income but his whole demeanor on that tour (from what i could see on photos) looked like someone who didnt really want to be there

maybe he lost a bet with Morrissey

I’d argue the the sixth person onstage let them do arrangements that were a lot closer to the studio overdubs

i assume it's so they can more accurately replicate the handful of songs from wish that have a three-guitar lineup as well as songs that have too many keyboard parts for one person - they've played "six different ways" and "a thousand hours" for the first time in decades

maybe he's someone's only friend in the band

Xp possibly, although I don’t think Perry played any guitar this time around

he played a bunch of guitar & six-string bass on the recent tour

Ah my bad

I'm really starting to believe that this album is going to be a masterpiece.

https://www.stereogum.com/2283833/the-cures-robert-smith-explains-why-ticketmasters-dynamic-pricing-is-a-scam/news/

As the singer for the Cure, Robert Smith could reap some great financial benefits from Ticketmaster’s insane price gouging. But for the past couple of years now, he’s been parroting all of our complaints about the company, even getting them to issue partial refunds to fans due to egregious fees. And he’s not done calling them out yet! In a new, rare interview with the Sunday Times, Smith spoke again about the “scam” of modern ticketing.

I was shocked by how much profit is made [by ticketing]. I thought, “We don’t need to make all this money.” My fights with the label have all been about how we can price things lower. The only reason you’d charge more for a gig is if you were worried that it was the last time you would be able to sell a T-shirt.

But if you had the self-belief that you’re still going to be here in a year’s time, you’d want the show to be great so people come back. You don’t want to charge as much as the market will let you. If people save on the tickets, they buy beer or merch. There is goodwill, they will come back next time. It is a self-fulfilling good vibe and I don’t understand why more people don’t do it.

It was easy to set ticket prices, but you need to be pig-headed. We didn’t allow dynamic pricing because it’s a scam that would disappear if every artist said, ‘I don’t want that!’ But most artists hide behind management. “Oh, we didn’t know,” they say. They all know. If they say they do not, they’re either fucking stupid or lying. It’s just driven by greed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmX1dWsEuJg 100 minute interview here, from the album's website

some of the details are here: https://www.nme.com/news/music/the-cure-have-another-new-album-thats-virtually-finished-and-another-to-come-3802243

he says the second album is "virtually finished" and there's a third album in the works too but he doesn't say much about it other than acknowledging that he 'can't help himself' saying things like that. "another happy birthday" and "it can never be the same" (which was originally intended for 4:14 scream iirc) are planned to be on the second album. he also plans to re-record a song called "boding of sky" (i think?) for the next album after cutting it from this album at the last minute. it was originally the closer (he said it's an acoustic song and compares it to "untitled") but was cut after he changed up the track list to add "drone:no drone" and "all i ever am" which apparently made the album a bit less bleak so it didn't need a lighter closer.

he says he started talking about the album in 2019 even though it wasn't anywhere near done to try to motivate himself to finish it quickly & because he was really excited about the two songs they had finished - "alone" and "endsong". covid then meant that he didn't really work on the album for two years, but he says he realises in hindsight he could have finished during lockdown with the time available.

he mentions he brought perry back into the band because he wanted to do justice to the new songs live.

There ya go. (Heard from someone who'd know that this'll be his only in-depth interview for this album so it's key watching.)

I love how everything turns into a long rambling story <3

Loving this interview

What an outstanding interview. I just sat and watched the whole thing in one sitting like I was a teenager again.

Yep! Hanging on every word because at the endnof the day RS is still a musical hero for me.

Oh noooooooo it’s gone

Uggghhhh, hope it comes back up! Was looking forward to watching that tonight.

still works here? regional Vimeo maintenance maybe?

For me it says, "This video has been removed by the uploader".

Posted to youtube here.

I get “this video has been removed by the uploader

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7hxkerU7EE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7hxkerU7EE

this is so good

Very.

Another 5/5 review

The Cure ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ Album Review
John Robb: Louder Than War
https://louderthanwar.com/the-cure-songs-of-a-lost-world-album-review/

Clash Magazine: The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World
https://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/the-cure-songs-of-a-lost-world/
9/10

Mojo Review: The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World
https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/new-music/the-cure-songs-of-a-lost-world-review/

very promising!

I am lolling that the Louder Than War reviewer doesn’t seem to know that Roger exists

that's, John Robb

John Robb - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Robb_(musician)

So you’re saying he REALLY should know better

5/5 in the Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/oct/18/the-cure-songs-of-a-lost-world-album-review

So this is the best Cure album in 30+ years. I’m ready. The timing feels right too.

WANT TO HEAR 'AND NOTHING IS FOREVER'?

WHY YES PLEASE THANK YOU

BBC Radio Details

The schedule for The Cure on BBC radio (UK times):

Oct. 31st

4-6pm (Radio 6) - Huw Stephens interview with Robert Smith

6pm (Radio 6) - 6 Music session: The Cure live

7pm (Radio 2) - The Cure in Concert

Nov. 1st

6 :30 am (Radio 2) - Highlights from The Cure in Concert https://t.co/Yiiwqari1c

— Chain of Flowers (@CraigatCoF) October 23, 2024

I like the implication that the concert runs from 7pm to 6:30am

Drone:nodrone clip up now, sounds pretty good

One week to go!

I was wondering if anyone could capture the livestream of the Troxy show this Friday? I'd do it myself, but I've actually got tickets to see it in person! I've seen a couple of people say they'll try do a screen capture, but it'd be great to save the actual data stream without any loss in quality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aWDlaxvEZo

So…I’ve been waiting for this to land. Here’s my formal review of the album.

https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/album-of-the-week/songs-of-a-lost-world-the-cure-review/

Great review ... and a rather muted reaction to the album, in my reading.

Lately I have been overwhelmed by the realization that so many of my favourite albums and songs are thirty or even forty (!!) years old, it seems like "Songs of a Lost World" only sharpens those emotions for long time Cure fans. Can't wait to finally hear it.

That's a wonderful read, Ned.

Great piece Ned - and fills me with the need to hear the record.

Breihan's very much a fan: https://www.stereogum.com/2285800/premature-evaluation-the-cure-songs-of-a-lost-world/reviews/premature-evaluation/

Same! Enjoyed reading that, Ned. Have you ever considered writing about music for a living?

> The schedule for The Cure on BBC radio (UK times):

this saturday on bbc2 is Cure night from 8 something to nearly 3 (with a break for Jools Holland in the middle).

20:10
The Cure at the BBC
A celebration of The Cure, Robert Smith and their unique songwriting talents.
Programme website

21:10
Radio 2 In Concert
The Cure
The Cure perform classics, fan favourites and tracks from the album Songs of a Lost World.
Programme website

22:25
Later... with Jools Holland

23:10
That Was Then... This Is Now
The Cure
Robert Smith discusses The Cure's relentless rise to fame. First broadcast in 1988.

23:45
Glastonbury
The Cure
Archive performance of The Cure performing at Glastonbury in 2019.

01:45
Rock Around the Clock: The Cure
Robert Smith and his band bring their musical menagerie to Glasgow's Barrowland Ballroom.

02:45

great album best since wish

happy halloween

Is it their best last album?

"and nothing is forever" is like all the really great songs on bloodflowers playing at once, rest assured this new cure album is for me at the very least

otm

The crispness of the mix impressed me from the moment I heard "Alone." It just sounds great.

With a different arrangement (acoustic instruments) and less intro, "And Nothing is Forever" could almost be a Pogues song. I could hear Shane singing it.

6Music Schedule Today

Today from 4pm @BBC6Music it’s all about @thecure. Hear their set at 6pm, Robert Smith interview at 5.30pm. Songs of a Lost World. pic.twitter.com/N2beD9hZMP

— Huw Stephens (@huwstephens) October 31, 2024

Oh man that Barrowlands broadcast is prime 1984, Andy Anderson-tastic Cure, not sure if it's ever been rebroadcast in it's entirety.

Almost done with the next album, he's saying now in the interview; planning to finish it after Christmas.

6 Music Session starts

plainsong

Xp haha yeah, sure

If this was back in 2008 I'd be equally skeptical but I sense via other comments he's made lately he kinda knows time's not guaranteed.

Anyway, thanks for all the kind comments earlier, it's much appreciated. Picking up on one point:

Great review ... and a rather muted reaction to the album, in my reading.

This was intentional. Not in the sense of underplaying something I do very much enjoy, but my opening paragraph was aiming to set aside the (thoroughly understandable) hooks of 'best since' and 'sixteen years!' and all that in favor of a 'look what does this actually SOUND like' approach. A semi-comparison point might be how I addressed when mbv came out:

https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/track-by-track/my-bloody-valentine-s-mbv-track-by-track-by-ned-raggett/

In that regard it is an exercise, but I was also thinking about how in future this will be 'just' another Cure album in a long line -- new fans will take them in all at once as they choose -- and also how even in that line certain albums standout as markers of time for me. Arguably, I wanted the review to last longer than it might otherwise seem.

Excellent review, Ned!

At Night sounding great on BBC6 rn. I love this band.

6 Music Session Playlist

Yesterday's (2024-10-30), The Cure @ BBC Radio Theatre, London, United Kingdom setlist:

Main Set:
Plainsong
Last Dance -- (First time since 2019)
I Can Never Say Goodbye
Burn
And Nothing Is Forever
At Night
A Forest
All I Ever Am -- (Live debut)
Prayers for Rain
Disintegration

— CureationX (@CureationX) October 31, 2024

Guys! Guys! Get new flangey synth patch for "A Forest"! Yikes!

why the fuck am I crying listening to this, I'm too old to be wrecked by a Cure album

yeah i can't stop thinking about how there is a new Cure LP that is good - special feeling

I will say it's a bit harsh on the ears, there is a mid-high emphasis (to me) that sounds like it was mixed to satisfy someone with some high end hearing loss. Might just be me tho.

Sounded good to me on headphones (Sony MDR 7600s plugged into a laptop, 320kbps MP3s). I'll need to listen to it again if I want any of the songs to stick in memory, though.

i listened via Apple Music on a decent stereo and it does have a touch of harshness - which I partly ascribe to Reeves Gabrels being a bit of a buzzy compressed guitar tones guy?

but the bass was very present and pleasing also - like very deep and rounded tones

I think there are fair few bits where Reeves is kinda doubling the bass? anyway I look forward to hearing it on headphones!

funnily I hear a bit of a Mogwai influence on "All I Ever Am", it sounds like "San Pedro" or something

Cooper still a lifeless drummer for me.

but holy shit the grandeur of "End Song". I'll shut up now.

Should I wait for the deluxe edition with the 400 demo songs they recorded for this?

I think there are fair few bits where Reeves is kinda doubling the bass?

Check the album credits: Smith is specifically listed as playing six string bass parts.

Ah I meant more that Reeves is playing guitar parts that are sitting very closely against the bass parts - eg at about 1:20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-PGc2CAJiA

Cool, that's an original 1962 Bass VI he's playing.
That mix sounds MUCH better than the album IMO.

I think what's nice about the modern day is that it's pretty easy to create an alternate mix of an album from all kinds of live takes (I'm assuming/hoping they'll bust out the remaining tracks that they haven't played live yet tomorrow).

In about five hours this will debut on streaming. I have an Ultra HD and Dolby Atmos sound options available to me.

Can't fucking wait

man Robert's voice sounds amazing, dunno how he's kept his voice sounding like that still. some great songs on this and I imagine more will stand out on further listens. I wish the mixing was a little less harsh though

Great production on this, love how mechanical and aggressive it often sounds but not in an 'industrial' way, and yeah Robert sounds fantastic.

this basically is what i expected - a solid enough album that's certainly their best since wish but isn't any sort of masterpiece and is really let down by the atrocious mix & master. it's so brickwalled, everything's compressed together and there's no depth to it

"endsong" is a career highlight even if it's let down by the mix - it's wonderful to have one of these epics from them that builds & develops so much as it goes on, so often their long songs are strangely static

Here we go, decidedly choose the Dolby Atmos version

Stunning

https://i.redd.it/p2mcswh334yd1.jpeg

BBC iPlayer, yeah, I'm not messing with VPNs. Until these get deleted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y107ghrnWdk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD9_-770bQk

It's more reminiscent of Wish overall (minus the hits), which I was not expecting

Amazing how much Perry has turned into Richard Lewis, bless his soul

... I like the album's songs but am struggling with how it sounds

it's odd that it sounds so maxxed out because on average i feel like that trend has gone away in recent years. hoping the vinyl has a little more air because otherwise it's perfectly splendid.

Mastering is horrible in a very noticeable way. WHY can't they at least release the vinyl master to HD Tracks etc, so many would pay for them

I realize we all hear things as we do but gosh I’m feeling none of these audio complaints.

Robert sounds fantastic and young which is funny considering he sings so much about getting old.

The album is great and will stand as one of their best ones in retrospectives, but yes the mix sounds very “swampy” which makes it a frustrating listen. It feels to me like squinting thru a great film that the projectionist fucked up.

hm yeah i am not hearing this oh well

> BBC iPlayer, yeah, I'm not messing with VPNs.

i don't think you need a VPN for Sounds (ie radio) only for iplayer (TV). certainly that always used to be the case.

I like all of the songs when I hear them live but listening to the album (for now, this might change) feels like... work. It's not that it's THAT extremely oppressively mixed, though, there's just like 30 layers when 15 would have worked too - I may just have to get used to it

xpost: Sounds does work, indeed (audio only though), didn't know that.

I'm with Ned. I don't know what you all think a Cure album is supposed to sound like, but this is both dreamy and heavy at the same time, and none of the instruments are buried, but they all blend together into one collective sound. Were you expecting chamber music?

I mean I know what a Cure album sounds like. Disintegration was released almost 4 decades ago and the mix is good. There’s something that sounds off in here, maybe mattk is right and it’s the emphasis on the mid-end. For me the textures sound “swampy” and the usually airy guitar and bass lines sound like they have a grit to them. Maybe it’s an aesthetic choice but it makes me feel like “squinting with my ears”.

But anyways, mix aside, I’m loving this. Might just be the best thing they’ve done since Disintegration.

mix sounds fantastic playing it on a MacBook Air in a napkin holder behind my monitor!

I like it even though the guitar and synth parts sometimes sound the same.

the string arrangements on "And Nothing is Forever"....just gorgeous

it's odd that it sounds so maxxed out because on average i feel like that trend has gone away in recent years

The progressive increase in murk from the second trio of remasters to Disintegration (especially Entreat) to the new disc of remixes on Mixed Up have been a clear indication that it’s likely one person’s hearing changing, not a trend

Mastering overseen by Robert Smith = sounds bad

Hmmm this is confirming my worse fear. Flat compression already ruined Alone for me so I’m a bit apprehensive about putting this on…

Well, I mean I guess confirming your fear if you completely ignore the multiple people here saying it DOESN'T sound bad.

I'm waiting for my copy to get here later today, so I haven't heard it yet.

Don't worry, it's a great album, it's just the exclusive TriAural (TM) mastering technique that requires three ears to fully enjoy.

I listen through my skin.

Anyway, gearing up for the Troxy show in two hours here -- watching the BBC 2 session now.

This is the best album of the year

on my first listen and haven’t fully read the thread. has anyone else commented on the nu-metal aspects of “drone:nodrone”?

If it was just Endsong and I Can Never Say Goodbye and it would be the best album of the year

has anyone else commented on the nu-metal aspects of “drone:nodrone”?

This aspect leapt right out at me, unsurprisingly.

I noticed that too, not in a bad way.

On first pass it seems like a decent album, it doesn't terribly excite me but it's for sure a respectable Cure album — not a small thing in 2024. BUT I am very much on the side of the "sounds terrible" caucus, it's thin and clanky where it feels like it wants to be grand and brooding. I feel like "Endsong" suffers in particular, the guitars are kinda nails-on-a-chalkboard to me and I'm guessing that wasn't the intent. Smith was either on the wrong drugs or not on the right ones in the mixing booth imo.

In conclusion, those of you saying it sounds bad/wrong are wrong, and the rest of us are right.

Every time I play it, it sounds better to me

I like it better than I thought I would, doesn't seem horribly detached from Disintegration. But I really wish Smith had a couple of whimsical pop songs left in him.

I think he does, they just weren’t the theme for this album

Sonics-wise, I'd invite anyone to experience what I did courtesy of Spotify, which was to play "Lovesong" right after the end of the album. Or any track from Disintegration. Stark difference. Maybe that's not bad! But if you (like me) have long viewed Disintegration as a masterfully mixed album, this one's ... not that.

My opening paragraph was aiming to set aside the (thoroughly understandable) hooks of 'best since' and 'sixteen years!' and all that in favor of a 'look what does this actually SOUND like' approach.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, October 31, 2024 6:30 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I'd actually clocked this and meant to say so earlier. It's a weird time and it feels like lots of people are ready for (and/or welcoming of) the idea of them releasing their "best album in an age".

My thing is that if I want to hear an album that sounds like Disintegration, I will play Disintegration

It’s just a weird complaint to me because you listen to any two Cure albums and they’re not going to sound the same; I’ve never listened to Disintegration and thought “I wish this sounded like Seventeen Seconds”

Okay, about to start!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aWDlaxvEZo

I appreciate how the Bad Wolf amp is the seventh member of the band at this point.

I hear you Dan, I just feel like this album is positioning itself in a very Disintegration-adjacent space of epic brooding. I think I would like the songs better in that kind of setting than what they have here.

Okay this is what I was waiting for — first live performance of “Warsong.”

Like the backdrop for “Drone:Nodrone,” bit of a changeup

Enjoying Simon's interactions with Reeves (in the 6Music set).

I'm not particularly taken by this album. My biggest complaint is that Robert Smith always had a knack for melodies / hooks (even on slower, melancholy songs). This one seems really lacking in that regard. And something like Drone:Nodrone is among the worst songs they're ever made.

Do you think Perry has a contract that stipulates "no self-expressive movement, no eye contact with other band members"? Weird vibes

Maybe he’s just in his zone. Let’s see how the second half of the show goes here.

Perry's kinda always been like that ime. Back in the day I always chalked it up to stage fright/nerves getting promoted from guitar tech.

I remain very grateful that “Burn” has become part of the standard set over the last decade.

I'm hot and cold on post-Pornography Cure, but they really sound phenomenal here on "Burn".

Wasn't the origin story of Burn that the Crow director wanted to use a Pornography song (maybe The Hanging Garden) and RS said he would write a new tune with the same vibe?

I was thinking it had a real Splintered in her Head vibe in the intro tonight (seeing SIHH live at a Reflections is one of my greatest Cure live moments, totally overwhelming and transporting, moreso that it was a total surprise)

Oh hey DJP’s favorite Cure song.

Excellent concert thus far!

And there ya go emsworth, Reeves and Perry chatting!

heh all is well in the world!

Gosh I adore FTEOTDGS

Bring back Lol, this guy is so floppy and unangular

Secrets!

Finally getting around to listening to this with the respect/attention it deserves. The songs generally seem good and I kind of like the big (as in expansive) sound they're going for, but the biggest problem I have is that the synths sound kinda cheap and mushy and mixed too high; as Soto wrote, "I like it even though the guitar and synth parts sometimes sound the same." And when the guitars do make their presence a bit more known, they sound a little too generic overdriven guitar to me; iirc some people on here don't rate "Wish" very high, but I think that album does a brilliant job of balancing three guitar players. Oh, and yeah, I still don't like Jason that much, who on this albums sounds like they asked Chad Smith to guest. Not that he plays like Chad Smith, just that a lot of the songs sound to me like what Chad Smith might do if he were called in to do a Cure session.

Ultimately all nitpicks, really, because it's good to have a new Cure album and have it not be bad. I wish they did what PJ Harvey and The The recently did and toured it in its entirety, one set the new album, the second selections from the catalog.

Man give me all the Seventeen Seconds here.

I wish they did what PJ Harvey and The The recently did and toured it in its entirety, one set the new album, the second selections from the catalog.

Hahah that is exactly what this YouTube livestream is! Watch the archive of it when it's done.

That livestream sounded fantastic. Now that is great mixing :)

Paul Corkett doing the honors there. Good choice.

Meantime, Ben Sisario interview in NYT, gift link.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/01/arts/music/robert-smith-cure-songs-of-a-lost-world-ticketmaster.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Wk4.HJLU.dK-qFHrXWZKn&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

There are no actual songs you'll ever erase remember.

I just noticed that BBC Sounds has their '85 Birmingham NEC recording and all the Peel sessions up for the next 20 days.

I have spent all day listening to this album

It is really fucking good

I think it sounds the way it’s supposed to sound and I wouldn’t want to change how it sounds

I Can Never Say Goodbye is devastating

People who say there’s no hooks in here are missing minerals in their diet. “Alone” and “I can never say enough” are very memorable and have plenty of hooks. Other songs in here too but those two had some instantly memorable vocal melodies to me.

People who say this doesn’t sound weirdly mixed either have better soundsystems/headphones than me or have gradually lost the ability to listen to some frequencies.

I normally just queue up shit and I listen to it when I get to that point in the queue but I might make an exception for this and listen to this on Sunday if I'm not too hungover (halloween party tomorrow)

I saw the Cure 2 years ago and liked all the new songs they played. am also somewhat conscious that I haven't really liked any Cure albums for 30 years and don't want to get my hopes up

I'm going to attempt this album tonight while drinking single malt whisky. Will report back to see if this fixes the mixing issues.

skimming through the live stream and lol they really messed up "friday i'm in love", somehow half the band played the verse instead of the second chorus and so they just muddle through for a bit before they get back in sync early into the bridge

I think people are forgetting that there are different versions of this album. When I first heard "Alone" via YouTube it did sound brickwalled to me then I heard about the ultra HD version and haven't went back. I have only heard the album twice via Dolby Atmos and that version is clear as a bell. It sounds rich and lush, not brickwalled.

the surround mix is much better because it isn't brickwalled to death but it's still a bit muddy, some of the details don't come through as well as i'd prefer

report back: drinking 4 whiskys made the mix more tolerable but it still sounds terrible to my drunk ears.

Shifted to other music and felt somewhat relieved. Which sucks because I really think this is the best Cure album since Disintegration - song wise - and Robert Smith's vocals sound beautiful and the basslines are very cool but the way the whole thing sounds makes it a very rough experience for me.

Watching the live concert confirms to me that the album sounds muddied in a way it shouldn't be and that Robert Smith's voice is untainted after all these years.

First pass impression: this is like 75% Bloodflowers Cure and 25% Disintegration Cure, which means I'm not exactly in love with it.

Keep Robert away from the knobs, get their live mixer to do the album and there you go

sorry bob

And yet the live mixer is the same guy who coproduced the album (Paul Corkett)

Conspiracy theory time? Were they sponsored by Dolby Atmos to make everything else sound bad? :-)

No I think Robert’s hearing is indeed fucked and is the kind of guy who has to have it his way. Whereas on the live stream Corkett could mix things without Bob watching over his shoulder. Anyway we have both versions now so who’s complaining

^ true

Reminds me how much better the 4:13 songs sounded on the live album showcase they did

boy, I tried revisiting that album this afternoon and … no.

“Underneath the Stars” was OK I guess.

Only listened a couple times so far. Is sending me into a full-blown revival. the CURE are easily in my top 10 all-time. So far I love the first 4 songs a lot. I've never had a "good" ear, and do have some hearing loss now, but they sound beautiful to me The last song's 6 minute intro isn't really hitting yet, but I'm going to let the whole thing sink in much more, along with revisiting amazing past catalog

the same guy who coproduced the album (Paul Corkett)

Whatever happened to Dave M Allen ? He made them sound so good, from The Top to Wish. Everything was perfectly balanced.

I believe he’s just retired. A friend knows him so I’ll ask.

““Underneath the Stars” was OK I guess.”

It’s a beautiful song and about 10000x better than anything else in the record… really their worst album by far

Anyone hear the vinyl yet? Mastering may be better there though these days I doubt it

Gosh I adore FTEOTDGS

I am amazed at how effortlessly Robert is singing those high notes.

I like how "I Can Never Say Goosbye" keeps threatening to turn into Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together."

the biggest problem I have is that the synths sound kinda cheap and mushy

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, November 1, 2024 10:22 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Need to play this more but that chimes with my early take. (And I really want to like this, having spent £20+ on a CD).

The nice thing about living in 2024 is that you can listen to live versions instead of album versions for most bands who sound better live (which is true for tons of 80s bands for my ears)

The deluxe edition with the exact same songs and mixes but instrumental: weird

... and a Blu-Ray.

The Cure At BBC provides a vital reminder that This Is Dom Jolly existed. Ideal place to get a version of Just Like Heaven

I enjoyed the launch show on YouTube, great to see them really into it (Perry excepted, apparently). Unwisely I followed it with a bit of the Trilogy bluray - same lineup bar Reeves, 22 years ago. They absolutely TORE into it and the ferocity was almost shocking. I’m very glad they’re still doing it tho.

I love this band and some of the songs are very good but boy does this thing sound HARSH! It's like everything but the voice has a comb filter on it. Really gnarly.

harsh how? I'm glad I'm oblivious to things like this a lot of the time. Loving this.

three people have said they can't hear the butt-awful mastering so it must be ok

xpost Sharp upper mid range frequencies, an ultra compressed and unspacious mix. I don't need to get all Hoffman-y here. It just sounds poor, sonically, even at low volume.

have only listened on some IEMs which must've suited it alright

The absolute state of the drums on Endsong... Fingers crossed a vinyl mastering is a bit more pleasant

You don't need to be a Hoffman casualty to get this

guessing 0.1% chance the vinyl mastering is different.

very interested in the Atmos mix though... if only you didn't have to buy the two other CDs to get it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mblx_jYFZmQ

checked the hoffmen

stereo:
https://i.ibb.co/XZmyw64/cure-bd-stereo.png

atmos:
https://i.ibb.co/jGnysxH/cure-atmos-front.png

At the risk of going Hoffman, after a few listens I just don't know why this record needed to sound quite so crunchy, it doesn't suit the music, all this added harmonic distortion and conflicting energy in the middle, the choice to push it all out there is puzzling. Californication was 25 years ago, that distorted bass tone is especially crap, man it's a tough listen.

xp Match the volume though. The smaller one doesn't really seem more dynamic.

yeah the atmos still has most of the problems, it's still horribly compressed, there's just a little more headroom because some of the synths & general ambience are in a separate channel

I think not wanting an otherwise good album being ruined with peak limiting/compression is strictly Hoffman board behavior

*ISN'T

Absolutely not, I mean chasing golden-eared perfection is different to not enjoying the record as much because it gives me a headache. Of course there's approximately zero chance anyone will be allowed at the multitracks to mix it properly.
Also I believe the vinyl / CD / Atmos mixes are subtly different, Smith said so in the long interview they released for the album (finishing up the Atmos mix at Abbey Rd was the first time he listened to the album outside of making decisions about it, iirc).

I do not believe you can get away with putting a master with a DR range as low as 6 is going to work on vinyl

The 'vinyl sounding better' thing has nothing to do with the alleged "warmth", it's because you can't put similarly peak limited and compressed music on the format full stop without being a complete disaster

Reading the the Hoffman forum Cure thread and I have to smile at tidbits like this, presented as fact, but untrue.

"...you might like the sound of harmonic distortion on most instruments and it's your prerogative but the conventional wisdom is that recording and mixing should not introduce this type of artifacts."

Looking forward to listening to this on the correct medium of musicassette + walkman

like I like how Disintegration sounds too but I have definitely heard complaints over the years that it is muddy?

the only Cure album that has any audiophile “wow” factor for me is Seventeen Seconds, fantastic sounding LP - the rest just sound good enough (or not, in the case of the 2004 and 2008 ones)

with the new one I wonder if whatever mastering/mix compression harshness situation is compounded by some of the performers’ effects choices - I enjoyed the recent live performances but some of Reeves’ guitar tones sound a big garish and yuk to me - and once or twice Simon had a really nasty distortion sound happening as well

been listening to the Spotify version on nice headphones and it sounds fine to me? like, not pristine like recent Church or Psychedelic Furs albums but not bad at all?

The mixing didn't seem as bad to me the second listen - it still feels "off" but I'm getting used to it. (Also listening on Spotify on headphones, for reference.) I don't even think about it on the faster songs like "A Fragile Thing" and "Drone:Nodrone". Probably the compression suits them better. "I Can Never Say Goodbye" is a really beautiful song

i love you all but lol you guys never change. these incessant posts about “the mix” … it’s like being presented with a new painting & talking about the bloody frame

OMG

Ned and Dan are the only ones with any sense itt and that is saying something

i think this album is quite beautiful & moving & am grateful they blessed us with something this good <3

and the live show was bloody gorgeous

oi, I talked about its emotional impact between whingeing about the sound

lol ok fine

https://iask.ai/?mode=question&q=What+kind+of+album+would+a+big+fan+of+The+Cure+want+to+hear+from+The+Cure+in+2024%3F

In conclusion, a big fan of The Cure would want an album in 2024 that combines atmospheric soundscapes with lyrical depth reflecting current societal themes while maintaining the band’s iconic style. They would appreciate innovative production techniques alongside familiar elements that evoke nostalgia for earlier works.

they nailed it!

dont encourage it

ppl in here are awfully defensive about the three ppl here who don’t mind how the record sounds, jesus

(Also listening on Spotify on headphones, for reference.)

i’m. a little against complaining about a mix if these are the listening conditions. just imo

I just want to say I’m now in a fight with akm over 4:13 Dream

love you all but lol you guys never change. these incessant posts about “the mix” … it’s like being presented with a new painting & talking about the bloody frame

tbf we talked plenty last year about how good the songs were and how promising it was for a whole real album




…amidst concerns that Robert’s busted ears would result in a mix that sounded much worse than the versions we’d heard live

oh gee a whole year ago well nevermind then excuse me

I still don’t get any of this going on.

FWIW, my access was WAV quality on my home computer via speakers. Totally killed. Again, I don’t know what to say to most of the rest of you!

there are a lot of different issues i have with the mix/master so i'll try to list them all. i'm usually listening through decent over-ear headphones - if anything it sounds better on the cheap earbuds i take when i leave the house because they make it sound less harsh & i don't notice the buried details as much

-the master is brickwalled with no dynamic range, as bad as the peak of the 'loudness war' in the late 00s
-the brickwalling means that it is extremely heavily compressed which makes it sound very flat with no headroom, the opposite of the spacious widescreen sound of say, disintegration
-it is generally difficult to pick out individual instruments and many details (that come through fine in many of the live mixes) are buried in the mix - an example is the guitar and piano lines at around ~2 minutes into "alone", they're buried behind the synth strings
-there's a generally harsh sound to it with upper-mid frequencies emphasised in a way that's unpleasant - this is probably robert compensating for hearing loss. this is made very obvious by looking at a spectrogram - everything above 1k hz is louder than would be ideal and in most songs there's a bit of a spike around 2k hz
-i don't really like the drum sound in general, or the distorted bass tone, but these are both exaggerated by the harsh upper-mid frequencies being boosted

i fiddled around with the eq a bunch and could get it to sound a bit better - not as harsh, synth strings don't bury everything else as much - but that doesn't fix everything

if you aren't hearing the harshness then it's probably just that your listening setup already de-emphasises those upper-mid frequencies enough so that it isn't noticeable. if you aren't hearing the muddiness of the mix where everything is kinda crushed together indistinguishably (often beneath synth strings) then idk but it's probably more obvious to me because i'd listened to a bunch of live versions and so have a clear idea of which parts are buried

ignoring all the issues with the mix, i think the only song i don't really care for here is "i can never say goodbye" which just drags a bit and i don't find its basic progression on piano very compelling. the rest is all decent enough and "endsong" is just excellent

So to use VG’s art analogy this is more like a muddy painting with very few color values (the music) in a lovely frame ( the voice).

I’m glad we at least got that wonderful 3 hour concert out of this, though!

i love you all but lol you guys never change. these incessant posts about “the mix” … it’s like being presented with a new painting & talking about the bloody frame

OMG

Ned and Dan are the only ones with any sense itt and that is saying something

i think this album is quite beautiful & moving & am grateful they blessed us with something this good <3

― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, November 2, 2024 9:26 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

+1

dare I speculate that many of us have similar hearing losses to Robert’s?
(expecting a fusillade of fps)

Random moments that hit hard:
“I know, I know” on Nothing is Forever pierces me as much as anything he’s ever written. The build of End Song. “I will lose myself in time / it won’t be long,” shut the fuck up Robert, you are never allowed to die. Entirety of “Alone” really.

i love / am moved by “the birds falling out of our skies / and the words falling out of our minds”

yeah that’s chilling and sad - approaches the lyric of “Homesick” which is my alltime favourite.

I hate to do it, but I have to agree with everyone complaining about the mix. I was streaming on Spotify and I understand that there is a better mix out there but when I stream other Cure albums (e.g. Pornography, Disintegration) they should fine so the problem isn't with my streaming source or headphones.

"Endsong" should sound like an apocalyptic doomscape, but that can't happen when the drums sound they were recorded in a parking garage.

Then again, I was in the car this morning and "Alone" came on the radio and I thought it sounded great, so maybe I need more time to process this.

i’m. a little against complaining about a mix if these are the listening conditions. just imo

Well, that was why I mentioned it, since that kind of thing can affect listening. I will say that it's my typical listening setup and complaining about the mix is not something I do often - just looked over the last 100 new releases I listened to and wouldn't complain about any of them. Anyway, agree that the focus should be more on the very good music so I'll drop it now

When I first heard the studio version of “Alone” my first thought was “I do t know if I like the way this sounds”. Then I listened to it a few more times and adjusted to aural vocabulary used to put this album together and moved back into appreciating the music.

I’m not trying to argue that the album doesn’t sound harsh. It absolutely does. I like that about it. I like the juxtaposition of angry swagger being subverted into introspective treatises on aging and loss; it here is a contemporary edge to this that is still very much The Cure to me but not an iteration that could have existed before now.

I'm happy we have a bunch of good-sounding live versions of the record now, the BBC did a great job of capturing them.

idk it has a bit of a late 90s/early 00s sound to it, it has that 80s band struggling to adjust to newer technology feeling a bit still, with some of the programmed synths & those slightly clumsily integrated drum machine claps etc.

it doesn't really detract too much but it's funny for them to have never quite moved past that sort of feeling

It’s because Cooper is a terrible drummer, I may have mentioned it 200 times

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheCure/comments/niucrc/what_does_everyone_think_of_jason_cooper_the/?rdt=47334

controversial take by DasKafetao : "He’s not a “bad drummer”, but he is a very bad “Cure drummer”. Just like Reeves is an excellent guitarist, but a bad Cure guitarist."

i don't think cooper is a terrible drummer but he obviously has nothing on williams and should probably be banned from having anything electronic drum pads or anything because he never makes good use of them

Dear lord, I will never get the endless “Why can’t Jason be Boris, then I will not be so sad” sentiments out there. I’ll always be grateful I saw the Cure with Boris in the same way that I saw Depeche with Alan Wilder, but that’s *the past*. The guy’s now had the third longest stint in the band beyond RS and Simon, he’s not going anywhere and he’s clearly done the work all this time. That take there, including the Reeves comment, basically boils down go this DasK person going “Robert isn’t a bad bandleader, but he is a very bad Cure bandleader,” which, bold fucking take from you! Why don’t you call him up and point out the error of his ways, I’m sure he’s in need of it and isn’t crying all the way to the bank!

i might be enjoying this thread more than the album, but it's close

Andy was the best drummer The Cure ever had, anyway

Cooper doesn't do anything distinctive like Boris did, but that's OK -- like you say, Boris is in the past and I'm not sad about it.

I really disliked Reeves Gabrels when he joined (based on the live recordings I heard) but I have done a 180 on him and now think he adds a lot to The Cure. When they're playing catalogue material in concert year after year (even though they dive deep into the catalogue), it helps to have a more unpredictable, experimentally-minded guitarist. That said, because of the questionable mixing, Gabrels' talents are not evident on the new album, AT ALL.

I admit I am growing increasingly amused that an album literally called Songs Of A Lost World and is explicitly about being unable to return to earlier states of being, irretrievable separations etc has provoked so much general commentary that often boils down to “Why can’t it be like it was?” You don’t say!

To quote another legacy band, people are people

OK if we're talking about Cure complaints that we can't hear, mine is the issue with Jason's drumming. It just sounds like drumming in The Cure

He's a solid drummer who doesn't make mistakes imho. To quote another legacy band, he's a man machine.

I don't like the sound of his kit or the lack of creativity in his parts (Chad Smith). I can't tell if I dislike him more than Reeves, though.

I saw the Cure with Boris in the same way that I saw Depeche with Alan Wilder

This is a good point, but it's funny you picked DM, since they reacted to Wilder leaving by apparently permanently hiring their own distracting drummer. One difference is that I eventually got used to that guy. Cooper, it's amazing to me that he's been in the band for basically 30 years (!) and last year live was the first time he sounded right to me. And then this album set me back again. Just like the clocks.

"is explicitly about being unable to return to earlier states of being"

they returned to those states pretty good on this album!

Roffle

i might be enjoying this thread more than the album, but it's close

― maf you one two (maffew12), Sunday, November 3, 2024 1:03 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I must admit that I'm enjoying the good will being shown to Smith and the collective joy/interest in the Cure (including this thread). I'm not massively into the album itself, so far (though really like "Alone") though hopefully that will change when I've lived with it a bit more.

I feel bad for the Troxy sound guy: "I BEG you not to play the thunder!"

And I wish they would stop using the breaking glass sounds in 'Disintegration'.

Otherwise, wow, what a great show.

Subsequent listening has warmed me up to several of the songs but not done anything to sell me on the production. Boosting the bass and reducing the treble helps a bit but can only do so much with drums that sound like trash cans. I don't mind the muddiness so much as the harshness.

BUT I think it's a good Cure album, and I agree that Smith's vocals sound great.

Feel like perhaps my harping on negatives has obscured the fact that I fell in love with this band aged 15 with The Head on the Door and for the next five years they were the single most important thing in my life, without exaggeration. I will always deeply love them and want good things from/for them. The new record is thrillingly great after decades where it seemed like Smith had forgotten his muse or gone adrift (and I think he feels the same way). I cued up the album wanting to love every second of it. I’m angry at the mix and at Cooper for breaking the spell and making me wince at times, while everything else is a triumph, their best and most moving record since I thought they’d lost it.

Amen

This is better than I expected. Drone:Nodrone is the best thing on it imo

The mini Seventeen Seconds set from the BBC Troy show is great, there’s still life in those old chestnuts!

*Troxy, jeez autocorrect

I got halfway through it, and so far, I really like this. I'm not a Cure die-hard (or even a fan, really, I like their singles and Faith and The Head On The Door). Disintegration never received much love from me, the "aural muck" quality of the production (outside of the singles) just made it too much of a slog...

...and yet here we are, with this new one, which so far sounds like every song is produced like "Plainsong", but it's even denser and even more monolithic and it actually totally works?

"A Fragile Thing" has this addictive bassline and Robert's guitar playing is as unspeakably beautiful as ever

Reeves Gabrels unexpectedly the least-MVP so far, only because his gnarliness makes me appreciate Robert's lyrical style that much more

And Robert Smith deserves an award for "best preserved baritone", I think. I skipped through Disintegration after finishing "Warsong" for a reference and... he sings exactly as gorgeously now as he did 35 years ago.

I honestly think the only person who might have beat the clock (if you will) more than RS vocally over time is Russell Mael. It’s just nuts.

Well, Colin Blunstone would like a word, but yes I agree

imagine if his voice broke one day and RS started singing like Barry White

"Can't Get Enough Of Your Walk, Babe"

"Can't Get Enough Of Your Love, Cat"

“Never Enough of Your Love, Babe”

(oh no, what have I done?)

"Come Close To Me, Babe"

"Why Can't I Be Your Love, Babe"

"Baby, Baby (Let's Go To Bed)" (ASCAP)

Those harsh upper frequencies get less harsh on repeated listens. It's like slowly getting used to a bad smell in the room to the point where you don't notice it anymore.

God bless whoever said this tho:

i love you all but lol you guys never change. these incessant posts about “the mix” … it’s like being presented with a new painting & talking about the bloody frame

I'm one of those people who stopped listening after Wish, but if this was the 1996 follow-up, it would probably have represented a slight return to form.

It doesn't sound, to me, like "harsh upper frequencies", it sounds as if the instrumental elements have been deliberately summed in ways that make the squashed together, so that on a track like "And Nothing Is Forever" it is impossible for my ears to distinguish the rompler strings from the rompler piano, it's just a munged-up pastel collage of changing harmonies. And that's cool.

Ivy. cited Jesu and that's otm. I hear "Plainsong", which has always been the troll guarding the gate insofar as "enjoying Disintegration" is concerned, a too-long disorienting mess of too-many overdubs. But on this album, the same it's odd, it's better constructed sonically and seems to be the entire thesis, and I like it

to be fair, the mix is less the frame and more some weird rainbow oil slick pigment added to the paint that some people can't see, some people can't unsee, and is also the aural equivalent of the Matisse font

That is beautiful.

Calling the overall production "the mix" is weird to me, lots of decisions were made in the process of making this album, it's not that mix day came around and the mixer just muddified it. It's muddy by design

I'll wait for the Robert Smith interview saying exactly this ^^^. In the meantime I blame bad decision making.

Having said this, though, I *have* listened to it a few times at low volume and it's an easier ride.

I think some songs suffer more than others. And Nothing… + I Can never say goodbye in particular sound crowded and flat. The guitar parts are drowned out.
Anyway, I find those two songs are a bit too similar. Drone sounds like a crappy late 90’s bside but I’ve seen people stanning for it so maybe it’ll grow on me.
The rest is fantastic

A downmix of the Bluray has just appeared in various questionable places online. Dynamic range of 10 (the regular version is 6)

Just did a Youtube rip of the Troxy show, will see how the album set sounds on headphones

Downmix sounds like a normal album... fantastic

I was noticing like "wow there's a lot of chime tree on this album" and then "oh another chime tree, Robert must really like that sound" and then the last thing you hear on "A Fragile Thing" is a reversed chime tree and I thought "maybe Robert owns stock in the chime tree company or something"

Must hunt that downmix!!

I'll make one for myself this weekend, just need to get my order!

i love you all but lol you guys never change. these incessant posts about “the mix” … it’s like being presented with a new painting & talking about the bloody frame

otm

Is there a good reason that this album has been released with a Dolby Atmos version? (I presume it's as simple as Smith likes the format??)

I could be wrong but I think the only other album I have in this format is one of the early Johann Johannsson ones.

it's time for you to get into Jethro Tull

Is there a good reason that this album has been released with a Dolby Atmos version? (I presume it's as simple as Smith likes the format??)

A number of the rich old white men who run The Music Industry are convinced that Dolby Atmos is the future, because they and their old white rich friends all love it, so they're sinking money into creating AI-enhanced Atmos "surround mixes" of albums that were originally recorded in four-track mono. It's completely absurd.

It doesn't sound, to me, like "harsh upper frequencies", it sounds as if the instrumental elements have been deliberately summed in ways that make the squashed together, so that on a track like "And Nothing Is Forever" it is impossible for my ears to distinguish the rompler strings from the rompler piano, it's just a munged-up pastel collage of changing harmonies. And that's cool.

Ivy. cited Jesu and that's otm. I hear "Plainsong", which has always been the troll guarding the gate insofar as "enjoying Disintegration" is concerned, a too-long disorienting mess of too-many overdubs. But on this album, the same it's odd, it's better constructed sonically and seems to be the entire thesis, and I like it

the mix being so squashed together so that instruments are difficult to distinguish and the upper-mid frequencies being unusually boosted (giving it a harsh sound) are completely different issues, one is an eq problem, one is a problem with compression & the overall balance of instrumentation. i dislike both!

to me it just kinda ruins the point of having these long disintegration-style instrumental passages if most of the instruments are squashed and buried, i don't like the way it sounds at all. "plainsong" is a good comparison point (though obviously we have opposite opinions) but i'm confused by the idea that it has too many overdubs? there's barely anything to it, just drums, synth strings, bass (playing the solo) and vocals, but it can all be heard clearly and sounds gigantic. if it were mixed like this album then gallup's bass solo would have been buried under the synth strings instead of at the forefront which wouldn't have worked anywhere near as well to my ears

Well that’s nice — $5 digital edition of the album with five bonus tracks: live versions of album songs from last year’s Shoreline shows, one of which I attended:

https://shopus.songsofalost.world/products/songs-of-a-lost-world-deluxe-edition-digital-album

US buyers only.

had a proper reverent lights-off listen on headphones last night - which is a thing in itself, I didn't ever feel like doing this with bloodflowers / The Cure / 4:13 dream

it was enjoyable and emotional and good! the album goes for a vibe and is successful in achieving it and there are no skips for me. it is a good new Cure album!

but! even with my most forgiving ears on I was a bit taken aback at how hard it was to discern what was going on in the music - which was always a big thing listening to Disintegration, I would listen to it and adored the way the parts entered and left the soundstage, and interacted with each other - it is a Cure signature thing! clever interlocking parts.

and after listening to the live shows over the weekend, it is particularly a drag how Robert's guitar parts are just indistinct mush - he is a lovely emotive player still and they are lovely parts but they are just super hard to pick out of the mix, I am only really aware of them because of listening to the live versions

is this paying too much attention to the frame? maybe. but these songs are constructed to do a particular thing - as above, I think it is a genius Cure thing that the songs are constructed to have an effect in a way that makes them pretty bulletproof to perform live (and hence why there is fan discomfort at stuff like the keyboard-free tour of c.2008)

and the art of recording music is partly the art of imparting information to a listener - and I do feel there is important information here that is not conveyed as clearly as it could be

I really don’t feel like I’m missing anything in the mix when I’m listening to this. Different pieces still jump out at me when I listen to this depending on what catches my attention but I mostly process each song as a whole; the “muddy” mix encourages that type of holistic consumption IMO

Listening to those new official Shoreline live cuts now -- having had a bootleg of the show I was at, nice to hear these songs in particular in a clean official version, though based on this thread I fear to recommend them further as a number of you will listen and then say your ears are being dunked in suet, or that a tiny microtone at one point is equivalent to mass murder, or that them not being available in AIFF-level quality surround sound is grounds for planetary exile.

As one of those boring people for whom DISINTEGRATION is the peak for these guys that they never quite hit again, this album is just lovely.

Hey - it’s ok to care about sound, just as it’s ok to care about musical quality. If it doesn’t bother you, lucky you, don’t imply that I’m less of a fan because I like things to sound good when it aligns with the artistic intent.

I mean we all agree that 4:!3 dream sounds terrible right? it's just that the songs / ~~vibe~~ are also not as good

Yeah I mean I'm NOT an audiophile. I listen to stuff in crappy formats through the car stereo and it doesn't bother me. There are specific records where I think the production does the music a disservice — been a lot of talk about this on the Tom Petty thread, e.g., and of course we had the much-discussed Replacements remix. This feels like one of those records to me, and obviously that reaction is neither unique nor universal. My own thinking is that Smith's ears might be going — in the way Tommy Erdelyi's damaged hearing seems to have been the genesis of the original Tim mix. But I'm in no position to know!

I mean we all agree that 4:!3 dream sounds terrible right? it's just that the songs / ~~vibe~~ are also not as good

yeah, though it doesn't have the harsh frequencies issue & while the mix is still very compressed & muddy it doesn't hurt things quite as much because there just isn't as much going on in those songs

My own thinking is that Smith's ears might be going — in the way Tommy Erdelyi's damaged hearing seems to have been the genesis of the original Tim mix. But I'm in no position to know!

We’ve been discussing this for …18? years now, and the fact that the issues have become more pronounced and more consistent (and have affected new mixes of recordings from 30-40 years ago) indicate that it’s either Robert’s hearing changing steadily over that time, or that he’s still REALLY sulky at Simon not liking Ross Robinson’s sound, and acting out.

The Corkett solo mix of the Troxy show not having the very specific consistent issues of mixes and remixes and remasters that Robert has done over this period seems definitive.

I remember that GAS album that had to be withdrawn and rereleased because the first version had an irritating eee-eee-eee noise all the way through that Wolfgang Voigt's ears were too fucked to notice. Are there many other albums like that, that actually got to the point of being replaced immediately after release?

(I have no complaints about the mix on the Cure album, wouldn't have noticed a thing if not for all the wailing here.)

Wailing. The backlash you get for speaking out when you think something sounds like shit - ok, I guess I'm not a real genuine fan then. Shrug.

How dare you ruin fun?

; - )

Does anyone remember laughter?

I tried to laugh about it, hiding the tears in my eyes

Anyone notice “All I Ever Am” has the same cadence and meter as “Disintegration”? You can sing one over the other easily.

xpost lol

haha @ baada

I am finally watching the release party gig

This is absolutely stunning

I'm saving it for after the election to either celebrate or make myself feel better

I realized this morning what endsong reminds me of: Doubts Even Here by New Order

It's supposed to be up on YouTube for a few more days but per the band's PR it won't be around forever so definitely catch it soon!

yeah it’s so incredible
Bob sounds terrific

I need to finish watching the whole release party gig. I actually fast-forwarded through the new album portion because I wanted to hear the album in context first (I'm weird like that), and then ended up missing large parts of the rest while I helped my son with some homework. But my wife thought it was absolutely fantastic.

While I watching I had the idle thought that Robert must have had a devil's bargain, "look Bob, the good news is I'm going to let you keep the voice, the bad news is, well, you aren't going to age great".

Finished a full listen on good headphones and I think the album sounds great. Mayne I just have a different idea of "muddy", because that's not what I hear at all.

I rewatched the Troxy gig last night as my nervous energy sink, if you will, given everything -- originally I was going to a show but it got cancelled, so being able to watch it properly all straight through on a big screen TV instead of the live 'at work-walking home-on computer' thing I had to do Friday. It's really well done for sure, I kinda hope they give it a formal release with the two BBC sessions from the previous day as bonuses.

"look Bob, the good news is I'm going to let you keep the voice, the bad news is, well, you aren't going to age great"

Thing is, I think he's just about where he was going to be anyway with that look, and as someone doggedly still wearing my hair long after three and a half decades, I get the dedication. (If anything I was more "Gosh, Perry Bamonte's looking really gaunt there.")

Oh, I totally appreciate his commitment to the look! I was mostly just being flip, more in awe of how his voice has been maintained after all these years.

I have yet to see or read an interview with him that specifically delves deep on that, and as he's my remaining possible 'get' of someone I've always wanted to interview (got Scott Walker, Trent Reznor, Dave Gahan and Martin Gore; no chance with Bowie or Prince, sadly), that would probably be my first question. I do know that he stopped drinking before going out to perform at some point in the 2000s or so, so I wonder if that coincided with him getting more seriously about making sure he preserved his voice. Still you never can predict how it works -- per my Russell Mael comment earlier, Russell himself says he barely rehearses or does anything like singing exercises so maybe it's just knowing what you've got.

Gah, fucking Push

Funny you should mention this, Ned, because he talks about this in this NPR interview:

https://www.npr.org/2024/11/01/nx-s1-5111807/the-cure-robert-smith-interview-songs-of-a-lost-world

That concert footage is something. I think he looks fine for a dude in his 60s, but it is particularly enchanting to see this old guy sing with the same pipes he had decades ago.

xpost Ah, there we go! And yeah pretty much he says it was getting sober or more sober that was a big part of it.

Gah, fucking Push

Ahhhhhhhhh FTEOTDGS yessssssssssss

Although kind of odd that Perry isn’t onstage for this one considering he was in the band circa Wish

Oh wait there he is, I swear he vanished for a bit

Mr Veg isn’t much of a Curr fan & glanced at the concert footage & was all “You think by now they’d fix their hair & wear a jacket instead of looking like elderly teenagers”
and i was like
“yeah but then they wouldnt be The Cure & it would be super weird”

*Cure

they wore nice suits in the Hot Hot Hot video, keep up Mr Veg

- insert Mr Veg eye-roll -

They become the Curr when the makeup comes off, iirc.