Robert Smith on the “really hard” process of making new The Cure album
As goth rock legends The Cure prepare to release their long-awaited release, Songs of a Lost World, frontman Robert Smith has detailed the difficult experience he found trying to keep things fresh when it comes time to the writing process.
Before Songs of a Lost World arrives on November 1st, the group’s last album was 4:13 Dream in 2008. Since then, all of their new output has been relegated to one-off remixes of past songs like ‘Disintegration’, and for many years it seemed uncertain whether they’d ever return with another full-length record.
In a new interview on BBC Radio 6 Music Session: The Cure Live, Smith talked about how difficult it was trying to get pieces of the album off the ground, stating, “It’s the one thing, as I’ve grown older, that I’ve found much much harder to do, to write words that I want to sing. To arrive at that point where I think that it’s worth singing these songs, it has become really, really hard. I have to admit.”
During the discussion, Smith also morbidly predicted that he didn’t think that he was going to see his 70th birthday. The frontman, now 65, talked about his need to live in “the day-to-day” more often, saying, “I’m enjoying what we’re doing at the moment, and I don’t really see any point in looking beyond it.”
That said, the goth-rock legend has also said that the group are well into the making of what could be two other Cure albums. Despite his need to live in the moment, he doesn’t see himself planning anything new material, continuing, “I’m almost there with it. Once I’ve done that, then I shall take a deep breath, and then I’ll look up, but until I finish it, I’m not bothering about what comes next.”
Smith also went into detail about while he has found enjoyment in writing words for some of the songs that he finds it much harder to “write words that I want to sing.” Regardless, Smith hasn’t been limited to The Cure in terms of his creative outlets, having contributed vocals to albums by the likes of Chvrches and Gorillaz in recent years.
Their appearance on BBC Radio 6 Music marks the first time that the group had played this intimate style of show in many years, which Smith welcomed as a major change of pace from their usual style, explaining, “It’s not often we perform such intimate shows, so we’re really looking forward to this.”
In a four-star review for Songs of a Lost World, Far Out wrote, “In Songs Of A Lost World, the exquisite guitar work and meticulously produced rhythmic cadences complement all the unspoken words, revealing a more immersive side to The Cure, where the haunt of a perturbed mind lingers in the subtleties. Ambience is a prominent force in modern music, and here its vagueness is anything but background.”
The Cure’s set for BBC 6 Music is now also available to watch on BBC iPlayer along with another show they recorded exclusively for BBC Radio 2. Songs of a Lost World arrives on November 1st, 2024.
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