The Cure fans receive cryptic messages amid new album speculation

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Kelly Rissman

US News Reporter

The Cure appear to be teasing the forthcoming release of what would be their first album in 16 years.

After a long wait, fans received postcards this week that seemingly revealed both the new album’s title, Songs of a Lost World, and release date.

Roman numerals embossed at the bottom of the postcard – pictures of which were shared to social media – translated to 1 November 2024.

Frontman Robert Smith has discussed the record on several occasions in interviews. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times in 2019, he blamed himself for some of the delays.

“I keep going back over and redoing [the tracks], which is silly,” he said. “At some point, I have to say that’s it.”

Smith, 65, said the album was “very much on the darker side of the spectrum. I lost my mother and my father and my brother recently, and obviously it had an effect on me.”

Comparing the soundscape to The Cure’s 1989 LP Disintegration, he added: “It’s not relentlessly doom and gloom... I was trying to create a big palette, a big wash of sound.”

In an interview that same year with The John Maytham Show, he confirmed that the English rock band had finished recording the album.

The previously untitled project was first announced back in 2018 during an interview with Smith about The Cure’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Smith spoke about how the nomination, along with the artists involved in his curation of 2018’s Meltdown Festival in London, was what inspired him to finish a new record.

“Primarily because of the Meltdown thing, seeing all these new bands inspired me to do something new,” he said. “It’s very exciting times for us all round.”

The Cure’s most recent album, 4:13 Dream, was released in 2008 to mostly positive reviews. It charted at No 33 in the UK, and No 16 on the US Billboard 200 chart.

Last month, they released a special double A-side vinyl featuring live versions of two new songs: “And Nothing is Forever” and “I Can Never Say Goodbye”, recorded in 2022 during their Shows of a Lost World tour.

Proceeds from the release are being donated towards the Brian Eno-founded climate action charity, Earth Percent.

Earlier this month, The Cure’s keyboardist Roger O’Donnell told fans that he had been treated for an “aggressive” form of blood cancer.

The 68-year-old said he had “ignored the symptoms for a few months” before a biopsy in 2023 showed he had a rare type of lymphoma.

“I had ignored the symptoms for a few months but finally went for a scan and after surgery the result of the biopsy was devastating,” he said.

After 11 months of treatment from some of “the finest specialists in the world”, O’Donnell said he was doing “fine” and that his prognosis was “amazing”.