The Cure’s Robert Smith on why ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ was nearly called ‘Live From The Moon’
The Cure‘s Robert Smith has opened up on why the band’s latest album ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ was nearly called ‘Live From The Moon’.
The rock icon appeared as a special guest on Tim Burgess’ Tims Listening Party in which he ran through the band’s acclaimed 14th studio album. Towards the end of the chat, Smith revealed that the working title of the LP was ‘Live From The Moon’ and discussed the importance of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing impacted the album’s recording.
“It was the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, which I was obsessed with as a kid. I wanted to be a footballer but then if I couldn’t do that, I wanted to be an astronaut. I thought it was kind of like ‘Well if I fail at football, I’ll be an astronaut,’ because that’s the way the world looked like it was going. How wrong was I?,” Smith began.
He recounted the day of the moon landing and how he was standing outside with his family and recalled: “I can remember my feeling of utter disbelief and being left alone in the garden looking up. Seeing on the telly, all of the grainy black and white images and stuff, it represented so much, the moon landing.
“It was an incredible event and the sense of the sense of optimism about everything, the possibilities, immense. I used to look up at the sky and think ‘I’m going to go to the moon. I’ve often written that line in different forms, and it represented the desire to just do whatever you wanted. Kind of like ‘Follow your dreams’ but it was real.”
Smith then went on to share that the working title for ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ was ‘Live From The Moon’ and explained how he and the band had recreated 1969 – the year of the landing – in Rockfield Studios in Wales for a month while they were recording the LP back in 2019.
“There was no modern technology allowed in the studio,” Smith explained. “We had all the 1969 stuff, magazines and newspapers and toys and board games, you know, Apollo board game – a fantastic game, particularly with a few pints of Welsh beer in you. For a month, we just created that sort of vibe which was ‘Songs of A Lost World’ because when I left the studio, I realised that that world that we’d created in Rockfield no longer existed and the world that I was celebrating no longer existed.
“Again, the persistence of the world itself, you know, you’re thinking everything is the same but it isn’t. It’s a strange feeling because our time scales are so tiny. Ever since the moon landing I have had a telescope and I love nothing more than spending a few hours just staring into space. It does give you a sense of perspective.”
The ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ singer had previously revealed the working title of the band’s 14th effort back in 2019. In an interview with The Los Angeles Times, Smith explained: “The working title was ‘Live From the Moon’, because I was enthralled by the 50th anniversary of the Apollo landing in the summer. We had a big moon hanging in the studio and lunar-related stuff lying around. I’ve always been a stargazer.”
In 2022, the legendary frontman then exclusively revealed to NME that the official title of the album was ‘Songs Of A Lost World’.
In a glowing five-star review of the album – which saw the band bag their first Number One album in the UK in 32 years – NME concluded: “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. 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.”
In other news, earlier this month, The Cure 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.
The mammoth Troxy 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 looks set to be The Cure’s final show before they tour in autumn 2025.
Smith also revealed that the band have another new album that’s “virtually finished” – with a third new record also on the way, and that he’s aiming to complete one of the LPs before hitting the road again in 2025.
“We’ll start up again next year,” said Smith. “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.
“But then we’ll probably be playing quite regularly through until the next anniversary – the 2028 anniversary! It’s looming on the horizon. The 2018 one, I started to think about in late 2016, thinking, ‘I’ve got a year and a half, it’s easy!’ And yet I still didn’t manage to get there in time. Now, I’m starting to think, ‘2028, I must get things in order’; so [that’s] the documentary film and things like that.”
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Anagricel Duran
NME
