Robert Smith from The Cure on grief, death and the new album Songs Of A Lost World

The Cure frontman Robert Smith says performing songs from the band's newly released album, Songs Of A Lost World, has helped him deal with the grief of losing close family members in recent years.

In conversation with Huw Stephens from BBC Radio 6 MusicHe said that singing live was “extremely cathartic” as it allowed him to escape the “doom and gloom” he felt.

“You just suddenly feel something. You feel a connection,” he added. “And that's why I still do it…that shared moment with a crowd. There’s something really, really wonderful about that.”

The band also played a live session beforehand when playing a Radio 2 In Concert set in front of a small audience at the BBC Radio Theater on Wednesday.

The London show included a performance of Alone – the group's first new music in 16 years and the lead single from Songs Of A Lost World, released this Friday.

The long-awaited album is the follow-up to 2008's 4:13 Dream and has been in production since 2019, following the band's 40th anniversary shows.

Smith expressed relief at completing the process, telling Stephens that as he grew older it became more difficult to complete the lyrics he deemed worthy.

“It's the one thing that's become much, much harder for me as I've gotten older – writing words that I want to sing. I can write words, but I don’t really feel like singing them.”

“It's become really, really hard to get to the point where I think these songs are worth singing,” he said.

He revealed that his wife Mary, whom he met in secondary school, had helped him finalize the album's tracklist and insisted that he balance the depth of darkness.

“I was just finishing reading the doom and gloom movies… and [Mary] said no, no, no, your best albums are the ones that just have a few… happier titles. She was right.

“I wanted to finish it all because I thought it would only be fair to all the songs, as if they were all little children – I don't want to pick favorites.”

The Cure were originally formed in 1978 in Crawley, West Sussex and are still considered gothic icons of alternative rock – with lyrics about love, fear and despair and a kaleidoscope of melodies.

From the early years of sparse rock music that tore apart the remnants of Joy Division's post-punk gloom and David Bowie's Low era, they blossomed into late '80s indie-pop heavyweights informed by Smith's melancholy were.

This era produced a number of UK Top 10 singles, including “Lullaby” and “Friday I'm In Love” – ​​one of the band's best-known tracks from their chart-topping 1992 album Wish.

Guitarist and primary songwriter Smith remains the band's only permanent member, closely followed by longtime bassist Simon Gallup.

Reeves Gabrels and Perry Bamote are currently touring on guitar, with Jason Cooper on drums and Roger O'Donnell on keyboards.

But it's Smith's imprint that dominates Songs Of A Lost World – the band's 14th album.

With songs written back in 2010, the events of the last few years have given it a personal touch, with Smith mourning the loss of family members, including his late brother Richard.

His death inspired the song “I Can Never Say Goodbye” – a window into grieving frustration and regret.

As the track found its way into new songs from last year's tour, Smith often struggled to complete it without becoming overwhelmed with emotion. He told Stephens that finally going on stage and singing the track “Night After Night” was a “wonderful moment.”

In an interview with Matt Everitt for the latest issue of Uncut magazine, which has been posted on the band's YouTube channel since its release, Smith explained that these real touchstones defined the album and set it apart from previous albums.

“When you’re younger, you romanticize [death]even without knowing it. Then it happens to your immediate family and friends and suddenly it’s something different,” he said.

“It's something I've struggled with lyrically: how am I going to incorporate that into the songs? I feel like I'm a different person than I was the last time we made an album. I wanted this to come through.”

This sense of fragility and awareness of mortality runs through as Smith, now 65, faces the passage of time with new urgency.

Its darkness and atmosphere echo 1982's Pornography and 1989's Disintegration. However, Songs Of A Lost World is much shorter at just eight tracks – almost half the running time of those albums.

Critics' reviews were positive, praising “Songs Of A Lost World” as a return to form.

The Telegraph gave it five starswith Neil McCormick describing it as “perversely uplifting in its nihilism and the best thing since their debut”. The Guardian's four-star review praised the album's introspective depth, particularly the way it grapples with “the question of Smith's own selfhood.”

“It seems to be falling apart,” wrote Kitty Empire, although fans reportedly had a clear image of one of British rock’s iconic figures. She also singled out the “unexpected pop banger” Drone: Nodrone – one of Mary's favorites – as the album's “climax”.

These themes culminate in the album's closer, Endsong, an 11-minute epic that stood out as the highlight of the band's Radio 2 In Concert performance on Wednesday – which aired on BBC Radio 2, iPlayer and BBC Two this Saturday.

The guitars form a droning, slow drumbeat, forming a fully formed crescendo of swirling tones and relentless bass hooks, similar to 1992's “Cut.”

Lyrically, Smith looks back on his own life and “remembers the hopes and dreams I had”; I wonder what happened to the “little boy” and how he “got so old.”

On paper it might be classic melancholy, but live it sounds equally brutally honest, uncompromisingly angry and resigned.

Otherwise, the mood of the set was celebratory and very lively: filled with fan favorites and greatest hits, from the languid heartbreak of “Pictures of You” to the poppier sounds of “Inbetween Days” and “Just Like Heaven.”

The band themselves were in good spirits, exchanging smiles as Smith playfully danced around during the encore, which also included “Close To Me” and “Lullaby.”

Joy at new material that sounds, in places, darker than ever before should perhaps come as no surprise.

“I hated the idea of ​​having a fixed time for a career,” Smith told the NME in 1983, when he turned 25. “I think it's terrible. I guess it’s because I’m getting older and feeling my age.”

Smith recently suggested to the Times that the band could end around its 50th anniversary in 2028 and he will be around 70 by then.

When speaking to Stephens, he suggested with a dry laugh that he “won't reach” that milestone age and would instead be “really excited” to see Christmas.

But Smith told Uncut that the band has three albums nearing completion following their highly productive recording sessions in 2019.

He adds to Stephens that he is “almost there” with the second album. “Once I've done that, I'll take a deep breath and then look up, but until I'm done, I won't worry about what comes next.”

Time waits for no one, but Smith and The Cure are certainly not ready to stand still.

Radio 2 in concert:

• Alone
• Pictures of you
• A fragile thing
• High
• A night like this
• Love song
• The walk
• Between days
• Just like heaven
• From the edge of the deep green sea
• End song

Encore

• Lullaby
• Friday I'm in love
• Close to me
• Why can't I be you?

BBC Radio 6 Music Session

• Chorale
• Sweep away
• I can never say goodbye
• Burn
• And nothing is forever
• At night
• A forest
• Everything I ever am
• Prayers for rain
• decay