After 16 years of waiting, the Cure have finally returned with their 14th studio album, Songs Of A Lost World, a perfectly Smith-ian blend of melancholy and wistfulness. As with just about every new Cure release, this is more than just a normal album - it’s a bridge to a time before, filled with the signature Cure moodiness that only Robert Smith and band can bring to life. At a time when the world feels adrift, Smith and company somehow sound timeless and even more eerily relevant.

Songs Of A Lost World was born from sessions dating back to 2019, with the album’s recording at Rockfield Studios in Wales, a fittingly isolated landscape for Smith's introspective musings. While pandemic delays held up the release, Smith worked alongside Paul Corkett, who previously worked with the band on Bloodflowers, to shape the record's sound. The result is a darkly atmospheric production, with Smith layering ghostly vocals, his iconic six-string bass, and keyboards. Longtime bassist Simon Gallup, drummer Jason Cooper, keyboardist Roger O’Donnell, and guitarist Reeves Gabrels, in his first full album appearance since joining in 2012, have created a record that’s both densely textured and quintessentially Cure.

Some tracks on the album, such as "Alone," "And Nothing Is Forever," "A Fragile Thing," "I Can Never Say Goodbye," and "Endsong," will already be familiar to fans who saw the band’s Shows Of A Lost World tour. During this tour, the band welcomed back former guitarist Perry Bamonte, though he did not appear on the final recording of Songs Of A Lost World. The album is also only the second in the band’s history to feature Smith as the sole writer, composer, and arranger of every song, something that hasn’t happened since 1985’s The Head On The Door.

The album art, a dramatic cover conceived by Smith himself and brought to life by friend Andy Vella, features Bagatelle, a striking 1975 sculpture by artist Janez Pirnat. The deluxe edition of Songs Of A Lost World features a 6-panel digisleeve, giving fans the album and its instrumentals across two CDs, with a Blu-ray boasting hi-res stereo and Dolby atmos mixes, a reminder that Smith loves to create a truly immersive experience for his fans. The Cure’s re-emergence with a brooding collection of songs doesn’t just transport listeners to a world of shadows but reaffirms why Smith and crew has always been the ultimate voice for the lost and the searching.