Review: After a 16-year absence, the Cure deliver their best album since 1989

POP/ROCK

The Cure, “Songs of a Lost World” (Capitol)

You might think that after being silent for 16 years, the Cure would be in a rush to get things going. Think again. It takes over three minutes of “Alone” — the first song on their new album — before we finally hear Robert Smith’s voice. The Cure are back, but definitely on their terms.

The eight-track album “Songs of a Lost World” is lush and deeply orchestral, swelling and powerful, with often several minutes of instruments jamming before any singing.

There are melancholic and mournful lyrics that confront mortality and wonder where time went. “I’m outside in the dark/Wondering/How I got so old,” Smith sings in the last, sprawling, heartbreaking song.

“Songs of a Lost World” is, indeed, not of this world. None of the tunes are under four minutes and the last one saunters past 10. In an era when music is fashioned for microbursts on TikTok, Smith is disinterested. He lets songs take their time, unrushed and able to breathe, the beauty of the melodies and instruments leading the way.

The first and last songs are in conversation, with the first stating “This is the end/Of every song we sing/Alone” and the final echoing the thought: “It’s all gone/Left alone with nothing/The end of every song.” There is a finality that fans will find distressful.

The album is the Cure’s first since 2008’s “4:13 Dream” — although Smith has been making music, including a terrific collaboration with Chvrches. Eight new songs don’t sound like a lot, but they are all rich and satisfying.

One of the highlights is “I Can Never Say Goodbye,” in which a simple, insistent piano noodle is surrounded by fluttering guitar work as Smith comes to terms with his brother’s death. The band also goes cinematic with “And Nothing Is Forever,” which has an Aaron Copland bright orchestral vibe, while “Warsong” is a dissonant, spikey downer that concludes “we are born to war.”

“All I Ever Am” is built on some interesting drumming, plinky piano and fuzzy guitars, a bright wave of music with Smith’s customary gloomy lyrics: “All I ever am/Is somehow never quite/All I am now.” It is classic the Cure and yet thrillingly not.

We are in an era of ‘80s bands reemerging like cicadas — Tears for Fears, Crowded House, the The, Pet Shop Boys, Duran Duran, among them — but “Songs of a Lost World” is no attempt to recapture “Friday I’m In Love” or “In Between Days.” It is a huge step forward. It is the Cure’s best album since 1989’s “Disintegration.” Hopefully, there will be more.

MARK KENNEDY, Associated Press

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