The Cure: Songs of a Lost World

After a 16-year hiatus, the Cure return with a studio album that may be their swan song, since singer, guitarist and songwriter Robert Smith, 65, plans to retire from the road. It’s gloomy and it’s glorious. “A Fragile Thing,” a somber spin on the disappointment of life, sets the mood while “And Nothing Is Forever” pleads for fans to “Hold me for the last time in the dying light.” Added to the mix are longtime Bowie/Tin Machine guitarist Reeves Gabrels (who ignites a pyre of smoldering fretwork on the elegiac “Endsong”) and producer Paul Corkett (Nick Cave, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds). Of course, Smith is known for emotional lyrics that juxtapose pain and pleasure. There’s a heaviness to his work, but also a redeeming Zen-like quality. Ultimately, Lost World is a sobering set of anthems for a dying planet. The songs simmer with despair, longing, and sadness for what has been cast aside or lost through neglect. On “Alone”—an elegant synth-driven goth-rock dirge—the Cure offer a druggy remedy for this modern malaise. “The ghosts of all that we’ve been/We toast with bitter dregs to our emptiness,” Smith sings. We’re all in this together—and misery loves company.