The Cure appear to be on the precipice of finally announcing their long-awaited new album, as the band has wiped their website and teased a release date for their first LP in 16 years.
In August, Robert Smith and company announced a 12″ charity single featuring live versions of two of the new songs the Cure had been playing on their recent tour.
After the limited-edition run of singles sold out, Smith suggested something else was forthcoming in a follow-up tweet. “And then…,” the singer simply wrote.
The “And then…,” it appears, is “Songs of a Lost World”, their long-in-the-works new album and first album since 2008’s “4:13 Dream”.
After wiping clean the band’s official website earlier this month — the front page is now only “The Cure” with an email signup link — U.K. fans received a postcard in the mail with the embossed words “Songs of a Lost World” and a group of Roman numerals that, when converted to European date/month format, translate to November 1, 2024.
Additionally, a poster promoting the forthcoming LP was placed outside a lone pub in Crawley, England, Smith’s hometown, Stereogum reported.
Over their lengthy Shows of a Lost World tour in recent years, The Cure played a half-dozen of the LP’s potential tracks — “A Fragile Thing,” “Endsong,” “I Can Never Say Goodbye,” “Alone,” “And Nothing Is Forever,” and “Another Happy Birthday”; live versions of “I Can Never Say Goodbye” and “And Nothing Is Forever” subsequently appeared on the 12″ single.
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Neither Smith nor the Cure’s social media accounts have acknowledged the postcards or formally announced the LP, but that will likely change soon, as November 1 is just six weeks away.
Smith has been at work on the new album for at least the past half-decade, providing Rolling Stone with a progress report back in 2019.“The other thing is we only did my demos, and the band has some songs they gave me to listen to, to turn into songs that I didn’t get around to.
“So I feel like we should probably explore them for a few days, as well, in the studio now that we’re playing again together just to see if something emerges,” Smith said.
“I do want it to work in a way those really good Cure albums — my favorite Cure albums — work as pieces. I want people to listen to it from beginning to end and be taken somewhere through that period.”
