From Radio X:
The Cure's Robert Smith teases "companion piece" to Songs Of A Lost World with the "saddest" song of all
By Jenny Mensah
The Cure frontman has revealed what to expect from the band's next effort and said it will hopefully be out "next summer".
Robert Smith says The Cure's next album could be "heavier" than their last.
The Cure frontman spoke to Radio X's John Kennedy this week as part of a special X-Posure track by track playback of the band's new Songs Of A Lost World album, where he revealed there's a breadth of work left over, which could very well see itself on the next record.
"There's 32 unreleased songs at the moment sitting in my house," he revealed. "There are another two eight track albums if we wanted. But I think that the next one will be probably 10 songs. I'm finishing the next one. I just can't decide on the running order. It's always which ones fit together best."
Smith also revealed there's so much more material he'd created through the years that he never considered revisiting before, but the response Songs Of A Lost World - which gave them their first UK No. 1 album in 32 years - had him rethinking waiting so long before issuing their next effort.
"We always had about 14, 15 songs left over from the 4:13 Dream sessions as well [from 2008]", the 65-year-old musician added. "So there's an awful lot of stuff that's unreleased and I never thought I'd bother revisiting it. But actually with the way this album has been received, I think maybe it's the right time for me just to go back over stuff and get it out there. Like, finish singing stuff and finish mixing it."
Sharing more details about the next record in particular, the Alone singer added: "The companion piece to Songs Of A Lost World, which will be out hopefully before next summer, is what I'm currently finishing. I just need to mix it. It's not as dark in some ways, although it actually has probably the saddest song of all of them on it."
He went on: "It has a couple of songs that we were playing live which didn't make it onto Songs Of A Lost World and it has some completely new stuff that no one's ever heard [...] There's three songs on it, which are slower than pretty much anything on this album. So I don't know, it may well end up being heavier than this one."
Continuing to talk about some of the tracks on what would be their 15th studio album, Smith revealed that although it's a long way from being "upbeat" in terms of its lyrics, it could include a track the band has been playing for some time which has transformed from a piece about bereavement to a "powerful live song".
"Lyrically, it's a very long way from being an upbeat album," he mused. "It has one song of grief on it which didn't make it onto this album, which is a very, very old song which we've been playing for a long, long time called It Can Never Be the Same. And I think that this next album will have that song on because I think it's about time. It used to be called Christmas Without You.
"When I first wrote it, it was about my mum dying, but it's mutated over the years and that's actually turned into a really powerful live song. That would probably make it on.
"Another song called A Boy I Never Knew - we've redone that. I think that would probably make it on. That's a sad song, but in a completely different way. That's me singing about a boy that died a million years ago. About the death of humanity before it started, I think... or something."
The expansive conversation, which was part of an X-Posure track by track playback of The Cure's Songs Of A Lost World album, saw the frontman discuss the inspiration behind the songs on the record, the encouragement he had from his elder brother to pursue music full-time, his thoughts on mortality and the process of ageing as well as the secret to preserving his voice over the years.
From The Cure's humble beginnings practicing in his parents' extension to the best piece of advice his father ever gave him, the much-loved alternative rock icon seems to leave no stone unturned in this memorable chat, which will be available to listen to this Saturday (14th December) from 11pm.
