Record of the Month

I figured I'd do a monthly 'what I'm listening to' kind of thing. This could be viewed as a lame placeholder kind of post. And probably it is. But it's my blog! So there!   

I don't think it surpising in the least that I'm reviewing the album my the Cure. 

I featured it's initial song release a month or so back. I mentioned a new disk was coming. And well....if A = B.......then you know the rest of the theorem.  Perhaps. 

Songs of a Lost World came out the first of this month, in theory, giving me plenty of time to listen to it and rate it accordingly. 

Not to keep dredging up Election 2024, but my mind got diverted and opted not to listen to the disk in such a negative head space. The Cure usually has a lot of minor key music - which Spinal Tap will tell you that D minor is the saddest of all the keys - and not so happy lyric much of the time. Why add on to my mood? 

That said, 710 played it on repeat for two days while sitting in his home office - whenever he wasn't on a work call.  ....and it was still cheerier than the election results!!!

Anyhooo......Songs of a Lost World goes nowhere fast, but it's not to say it doesn't go anywhere. For those who like the up-tempo songs of the group, look elsewhere. 

The album is about aging, mortality and impermanence which is natural for artists 45 years into their career, and fits into their somberness, but this time (maybe all times) with purpose. 

"And Nothing Is Forever", Robert Smith sings, "you'll hold me for the last time"......and "if you promise you'll be with me in the end" and it somehow might be his most romantic lyric ever.  In the first single, "Alone", Smith sings, "this is the end of every song that we sing", again, the cessation of life is implied. 

The albums sounds new, but has elements of so much of what they have done, it's new and yet it is still safe ("Warsong" is a perfect example of this). "I Can Never Say Goodbye" is about the passing of Smith's brother. So yes, more regarding the theme of ending. 

That all said, it is all good. 

It is quite amazing that Smith's vocals are really no different than 4+ decades ago.  

Songs of a Lost World is a very worthy disk for the band. There are only eight songs, but they make them all work, and well at that.