After a series of cryptic teasers, the Cure have released “Alone,” the lead single from their first new album since 2008, Songs of a Lost World. The LP will be released Nov. 1 through Capitol Records.
“Alone” is one of several songs debuted during the Robert Smith-led band’s 2022-23 tour, along with “Endsong,” “A Fragile Thing,” “Another Happy Birthday,” “And Nothing Is Forever” and “I Can Never Say Goodbye.” The full track list has yet to be announced, although on Oct. 1, the latter two cuts will be released in versions taped in France in 2022 on a 12-inch vinyl single.
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“It’s the track that unlocked the record,” Smith says of “Alone.” “As soon as we had that piece of music recorded, I knew it was the opening song, and I felt the whole album come into focus. I had been struggling to find the right opening line for the right opening song for a while, working with the simple idea of ‘being alone,’ always in the back of my mind this nagging feeling that I already knew what the opening line should be. As soon as we finished recording I remembered the poem ‘Dregs’ by the English poet Ernest Dowson, and that was the moment when I knew the song—and the album—were real.”
Songs of a Lost World is the follow-up to 2008’s 4:13 Dream, which debuted at No. 16 on the Billboard 200.
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