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.
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.
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“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.”
