Robert Smith teases when to expect The Cure’s next album, featuring “the saddest song” of recent batch

The Cure‘s Robert Smith has teased fans on when they can expect the band’s next album, featuring “the saddest song” of their recent batch.

• READ MORE: The Cure – ‘Songs Of A Lost World’: a masterful reflection on loss

While appearing as a guest on X-Posure with John Kennedy on Radio X, the ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ singer opened up about when the legendary rockers would release their next album which will serve as a follow-up to their 14th studio LP, ‘Songs Of A Lost World’– their first since 2008’s ‘4:13 Dream‘.

Smith revealed that he is “already finishing” the band’s next album and teased that it can potentially receive a release as early as next summer. Kennedy asked Smith about the ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ tracklist, questioning: “There’s only eight songs on the album, but you alluded to the fact that there are another 32 songs that you recorded in 2019, was it?”

“Over the period prior to 2019 as well,” Smith responded, adding: “In 2019 we recorded 24 songs for what was going to be a double album, and those eight have come out.”

After discussing the massive amount of tracks that have been created, Kennedy asked: “And so that means there’s a lot more to come. Is that right?,” to which Smith responded: “There are another two – 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. We always had about 14 songs, 15 songs left over from the ‘4:13 Dream’ sessions as well. So, there’s an awful lot of stuff that’s unreleased and I never thought I’d bother kind of 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.”

The singer continued: “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. 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. But it’s probably more varied, I think.”

This is not the first time Smith has opened up on all the new material that the band have been sitting on since 2008. Back in 2020, Smith told NME that the band were hard at work on “two new albums and an hour of noise”.

During a recent interview with Absolute Radio’s Danielle Perry, as part of a special version of Tim Burgess’ Listening Parties, the frontman gave an update on the new material as well, and shared that one is complete and comes as somewhat of a sibling record to their recently shared LP. “There is another album which is pretty much ready to go. It’s sort of its companion piece,” he said, adding that there is material written for yet another album that takes a different approach. “There’s a third one which is completely different. It’s really kind of random stuff, like late-night studio stuff. But some of it is really good actually, it’s just very very different.”

Smith had hinted about the “different” third LP before too, saying that he was eager to fully complete at least one of the records before gearing up to hit the road in 2025.

“We’ll start up again next year. Seriously, I have to finish the second album. We were going to play festivals next year, but then I decided that we weren’t going to play anything next summer. The next time we go out on stage will be autumn next year,” he said.

The comments about the new material come as The Cure recently released the new ‘A Fragile Thing’ EP featuring a live version and a Robert Smith remix, before announcing a new live album of their special London launch gig.

Robert Smith has revealed that there is more music on the way… pic.twitter.com/AsKqlG3lcY

— Absolute Radio (@absoluteradio) December 9, 2024

Held at the Troxy, the show saw the band play ‘Songs Of A Lost In World’ in full before running through a packed set of fan favourites and greatest hits, and seems to be their final gig before they tour in autumn 2025.

‘Songs Of A Lost World’ saw The Cure bag their first Number One album in the UK in 32 years, with NME awarding it five stars. “Merciless? Yes, but there’s always enough heart in the darkness and opulence in the sound to hold you and place these songs alongside The Cure’s finest,” it read.

“The frontman suggested that another two records may be arriving at some point, but ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ feels sufficient enough for the wait we’ve endured, just for being arguably the most personal album of Smith’s career. Mortality may loom, but there’s colour in the black and flowers on the grave.”

It was also included in NME’s list of Best Albums Of The Year, while lead single ‘Alone’ starred in NME’s Best Songs Of 2024. “‘Alone’ ended a 16-year drought and proved The Cure haven’t lost any of their magic. Through swirling synths and cinematic instrumentation, paired with Robert Smith’s poignant lyricism and melodies, this epic is a masterwork of ethereal beauty and raw emotional depth,” the latter read. “One of their most captivating songs to date.”

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