Robert Smith doesn’t expect The Cure’s new album to be ‘a number one single’

Robert Smith of The Cure announced earlier this year that that a new album from the band will not be long in coming. The singer has now reiterated this statement and divulged further details about the supposedly darkest of all The Cure works. The musician also reported what fans can expect from the upcoming tour.

Robert Smith repeatedly announced the album as coming “very soon”.

The new record will be called “Songs Of A Lost World”, Smith had already revealed that months ago. It has also been clear for a long time that this is only one of two upcoming long players. It was announced that the first album would be released “very soon”, Smith now announced to “NME” that it would be released before the start of The Cure tour in winter 2022 at the latest. According to Smith, it’s “almost done.”

He explains that guitarist Reeves Gabrels, who has been with The Cure since 2012, “came over from America for a day to finish some solos”. Smith himself only had to “record some vocals”. Overall, the record would include 12 tracks, so far it is “half mixed, half finished”. The Cure frontman goes on to explain that SONGS OF A LOST WORLD has evolved over the past two years, which hasn’t been an easy thing: “When you’re tinkering with it, it’s like you’re pulling on seams that everything is falling apart leave,” he describes in retrospect.

“The best we have ever done”

Although the completion process has been going on for so long, it would be worth the wait, Smith explains. “I think it’s the best thing we’ve ever done,” he adds. The singer also reports that many of the songs are difficult to sing, which is why it took him a while. As for the character of the album, he says the new songs “don’t have a lot of lightness about them,” would sound more like the dark wave tracks from 1989’s DISINTEGRATION than the more poppy tracks of THE HEAD ON THE DOOR . With this “ruthless” concept, the band “would appeal to the majority of our audience,” according to Smith. However, he does not see a “number one single” coming.

The 63-year-old also talks about the influence of the pandemic: “I was more privileged than most, but lockdown and Covid have affected me in that I have lost a whole generation of aunts and uncles in less than a year. It’s things like that that influenced the way I approached the record.”

Finishing two albums at once is ‘impossible’

He also reports that The Cure recorded two albums in 2019. Smith would have tried to finish them at the same time, which was “more or less impossible”. Therefore, fans would have to be patient with the second work even longer. “There are a handful of really good songs, but I don’t find some of the others that good anymore, so we might have to record four or five more,” he explains the longer wait. “When it’s finished, it’s very happy. It’s the flip side of the first album,” he reveals about the second record. He can’t wait to sing these songs, says the musician. “It’s depressing to sing the same thing over and over again,” he explains.

Simon Gallup demos to be released

Robert Smith also spoke about working with bassist Simon Gallup, who has left the band several times. “With Simon we send demos back and forth. Since I write the lyrics, I decide which songs will continue and which will not. It’s often the case that I choose the wrong songs afterwards,” says the musician. So there were numerous demos by Gallup that were never continued and “remained instrumental just because I couldn’t think of lyrics,” Smith explains. Since the instrumental pieces are “great” anyway, they would just be released as such. It would be a total of 36 unreleased songs, according to Robert Smith.

No more three-hour sets to be expected from The Cure

Smith can also give some tips for The Cure’s upcoming European tour: The shows shouldn’t last longer than three hours – as was often the case back then – but should be limited to around two hours and 15 minutes, explains the band’s frontman. The Cure also want to play new songs, but still want to play old titles. After all, the strength of his band live is “the catalog and the songs that we have”. This is particularly important in view of the large arenas in which The Cure will play: “You have to involve everyone in the hall. You can’t just focus on a handful of people in the front row.” Doing that would be “great,” Smith says. “Provided that Europe still exists when we start…” he adds more pessimistically.

+++ This article first appeared on rollingstone.de +++

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