First two releases from the new Cure album imply a record of excellence

We are two songs in, Cure fans. The band's new album, Songs of a Lost World, is due out on November 1, and if there was any doubt that the band would be rusty, that has been dismissed. At least, that is true based on the first two songs from the new record.

The band's first release is called "Alone," and that was a bit of a cheat. The band has opened concerts with the song for quite some time now. Robert Smith and his friends knew what they were going to do once they recorded it. It was time-tested and, well...great.

The song is a slow burn in classic Cure style, and the music is both atmospheric and helps set a somewhat uneasy mood. There are no vocals until literally halfway through the tune, and then when Smith begins to emote, one might feel as if they are listening to something from 1989's Disintegration. That is a good thing.

The Cure's first two songs from their new album are dazzling

The lyrics are typically bleak as well. Smith muses, "Cold and afraid, the ghosts of all that we've been
/We toast with bitter dregs, to our emptiness." In other words, it's amazing

The second song released so far is "A Fragile Thing." According to a press release by the band, the song is "driven by the difficulties we face in choosing between mutually exclusive needs and how we deal with the futile regret that can follow these choices, however sure we are that the right choices have been made,"

While that sounds glum, the truth is that the Cure have always found a way to take a dark existence and somehow made songs that gave people hope. We are not alone in the world suffering, and Robert Smith knows that. He puts into words many of our own feelings and thoughts, so we do not feel so alone. "A Fragile Thing" delivers that to us.

Many of the songs on the new record have been played in concerts from 2022 and 2023 and appear to have been recorded before that. The issue was that Smith kept wanting a slightly different sound to most of them. If the first two releases are any indication, he is right in his approach.

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