Songs of a Lost World

by The Cure

It took me a long, long time to make up my mind about this one and it felt like an exercise in adding heavy weights to both sides of a set of scales, with neither side tipping the balance.

On the positive side, we have Robert’s voice, which sounds incredible irrespective of his age. Then there are the tunes… some wonderful melodies that bury themselves in your head, especially A Fragile Thing. The lyrics are good too – the tone isn’t unexpected but there’s poignancy in I Can Never Say Goodbye that makes it hit hard and Endsong goes all out. The mood of SOALW is consistent, which you don’t always get with Cure albums; I like eclectic Cure too but this album is better for the strong musical arc from song 1 to 8. The final big positive is the sheer enormity of Endsong, which builds majestically and all the parts – Robert’s voice, all of the guitars – complement each other perfectly. For me, it’s the best Cure song since the 80s, just beating From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea.

On the other side… the instrumentation is too samey and – I’ve got to say it – there’s one too many guitarists in the band. More than that, the production just smudges all those layers and creates an overbearing sound in places; it’s notable that when there’s space on SOALW, it’s much more enjoyable. The synths and piano lack adventure, the drums sound weird too. One specific issue I have is with the beginning of Alone. The first six bars explode in a wall of noise and I’m thinking, “yesss” and then the momentum completely dies and the next few minutes are fairly excruciating, all stuttering drums and guitars as Roger O’Donnell adds layers painstakingly slowly before, finally, Bob sings.

But here’s the thing. After a good few plays, it’s that voice, those melodies, those lyrics that I’m hearing in my head when the album isn’t playing. And the songs matter, whereas the production and instrumentation and arrangements don’t matter as much. So after a few weeks, during which I went back to Bloodflowers to see if SOALW really stood up, I came to the conclusion that it more than does – and it is also superior to Wish. Welcome back you lovely lot!