The Cure Announce Songs of a Lost World; Listen to the First Single “Alone”

After years of promises, teased details, and missed deadlines, it’s official: The Cure is releasing a new album. Songs of a Lost World will be the band’s fourteenth album, their first since 2008’s 4:13 Dream. In previous interviews, band members have described the album as “merciless” and “the most intense, saddest, most dramatic, and most emotional record we’ve ever made,” and that certainly seems to bear out with its first single.

“Alone” is a nearly seven-minute-long dirge that finds Robert Smith — who sounds as ageless as ever — crying out “This is the end of every song that we sing/The fire burned out to ash and the stars grown dim with tears.” Meanwhile, Smith’s bandmates create a gorgeous sonic backdrop replete with unfurling guitars, sweeping synths, and ceremonial rhythms that hearken back to Disintegration.

In other words, it’s the perfect opener for a Cure album, and a very good sign of things to come. (In a statement about the song, Smith called “Alone” the “track that unlocked the record” and helped “the whole album come into focus.”)

Watch the lyric video above or listen to “Alone” on Apple Music and Spotify.

Songs of a Lost World will be released on November 1, 2024 — a date the band began teasing two weeks ago — and will be released in several formats, including vinyl, cassette, and a 3-disc set that includes instrumental versions and a Blu-ray with “hi-res stereo and Dolby Atmos mixes.” Click here to preorder your copy.

Back in 2022, Robert Smith revealed that Songs of a Lost World is actually one of two companion albums, with the other one — still as yet untitled — being more upbeat in tone. Smith’s solo album is apparently still in the works, as well.