After an eternity of variable length – 16 years since their last studio album, five years since it was recorded, two years since Robert Smith revealed its title, and over a year since the world tour for it concluded, The Cure’s Songs From A Lost World is finally out… or so I’m told, as no Canadian retailer has gotten physical copies yet. But November 1 was the day, and the occasion was appropriately marked by a lot.
They started with a pair of intimate Hallowe’en shows for BBCs Radio 2 and Radio 6, which are audio-only and available to stream for the remainder of November:
The Cure @ BBC Radio 2 – October 31, 2024
The Cure @ BBC 6 Music – October 31, 2024
But the main event was their relatively intimate but still epic – three hours long! – album release show at The Troxy in London, which was livestreamed on YouTube and will remain there, presumably, indefinitely for posterity.
And if you’d rather read about the show than watch the show, The Guardian has a review:
Additionally, Smith has been doing the high-profile media rounds for interviews, but pre-empted them a few weeks ago with a 100-minute on-camera interview released by the band themselves, thus answering most of the questions any journalists might have thought to ask as well as establishing the talking points for the album. Some might think this a bit of a cynical move, rather than just opening themselves up to an outside independent journalist, but it’s Bob and in Bob we trust.
The old-school news media had their minutes, anyways. Here’s some of the big feature pieces:
How Robert Smith of the Cure Became Rock’s Most Dogged Activist @ The New York Times
‘How it will end is how it will end,’ but The Cure isn’t over, yet @ NPR Music
The Cure’s Robert Smith: ‘Singing new album live helps me grieve’ @ BBC
But I most liked this bit at Guitar World that takes a look at an Instagram post by the band of Robert’s live setup and revelling in just how non-boutique and proletarian his sonic toolbox is. I hope/expect that what’s left of the guitar media has gotten some time with Smith and Reeves Gabrels to discuss the minutiae of what went into creating the new record, but that will surely come later. For now, let’s watch the prices of Roland Cube amps skyrocket (ok not really).
