A Legendary Rock Band is Back After 16 Years Audio Ink Radio

A Legendary Rock Band is Back After 16 Years

2024-09-29

A legendary rock band is back – Author: Charles Ken, Photo credit: Sam Rockman

It’s always such a great feeling when a legendary band releases new music after being away a long time. That’s even more the case with an older band, because it’s difficult to know just how long these bands are going to be around. Such is the case with a legendary 1980s rock band who has released their first bit of new music in 16 years. They also have a new album on the way, so it appears the drought is over, and fans are surely happy to have these ’80s sounds back.

The Cure is Back With ‘Alone’

Classic gothic rockers the Cure are back. The group released their first new single in 16 years this week, “Alone,” and also announced a new studio album, packed with originals. The British band will release their 14th album, “Songs of a Lost World,” on November 1.

Frontman Robert Smith says “Alone” is “the track that unlocked the record; as soon as we had that piece of music recorded I knew it was the opening song, and I felt the whole album come into focus.”

He added, “I had been struggling to find the right opening line for the right opening song for a while, working with the simple idea of ‘being alone’, always in the back of my mind this nagging feeling that I already knew what the opening line should be… as soon as we finished recording I remembered the poem ‘Dregs’ by the English poet Ernest Dowson… and that was the moment when I knew the song – and the album – were real.”

“I had been struggling to find the right opening line for the right opening song for a while, working with the simple idea of being alone always in the back of my mind,” Smith continued. “…This nagging feeling that I already knew what the opening line should be . . . as soon as we finished recording, I remembered the poem ‘Dregs’ by the English poet Ernest Dowson. That was the moment when I knew the song – and the album – were real.”

The Cure’s 2024 lineup features longtime members Smith, Simon Gallup, Jason Cooper, Reeves Gabrels and Roger O’Donnell.

‘Songs of a Lost World’ Follows ‘4:13 Dream’

“Songs of a Lost World” will follow up 2008’s “4:13 Dream,” which was praised by critics.

The Guardian noted, “For a band who haven’t made a great record in years and who, visually, are anchored in an era when crimpers were part of every black-clad boy’s wardrobe, the Cure are still, remarkably, one of rock’s lodestones.” They added that on “4:13 Dream,” the Cure “are as thrilling now as they were in the Eighties when they (energized) their legion of admirers and opened up manifold new avenues in rock.”

Pitchfork gave the album a mixed review, writing, “There are memorable songs here, from the gorgeous refrains of “The Hungry Ghost” to the dizzily happy “This. Here and Now. With You”; there are times when they break out the wah pedals and whip up storms with an infectious happiness. The only problem is that the rambling approach that let Smith get these things out has kept the results from being all they might have been.”

Rolling Stone added, “On the verge of 50 and leading a double-guitar gnarly-glam version of the Cure, Smith sounds less like a lovesick prince in 4:13 Dream’s looping-riff viscera and swallow-you-whole echo, and more like the avenging middle-aged Roger Waters on Pink Floyd’s Animals. There is none of the rag-doll bounce of the Cure’s late-Eighties hits.”

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Charles Ken

Meet the expert - Charles Ken is a graduate of Michigan State University where he studied writing and history. He's a longtime music buff and covers classic rock for Audio Ink Radio. Contact him at ken@audioinkradio.com.

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