Album Title: The Cure
Release Dates: Total running time: 51:23 (US) Working Titles: Number of tracks on album: 11-15 Number of tracks recorded: 20 Missing Songs: Read fan reviews of the album |
![]() Produced by: Ross Robinson & Robert Smith Recorded at: Olympic Studios in London Record Label: Geffen / I Am Recordings Formats: |
Track Listings
US
Lost
|
UK
Lost
|
Japan
Lost
|
Rest of the World
Lost
|
Vinyl
Lost
The End of
the World alt.end
The Promise
|
Album Orders
Canada Amazon - CDN$ 14.99 CD Plus - CDN$ 14.99 Future Shop - CDN$ 14.99 (This is the deluxe version) CD Plus - CDN$ 18.99 (This is the deluxe version) Amazon - CDN$ 19.99 (This is the deluxe import) Mexico US Regular CD Deluxe CD & DVD Japanese Import UK Import Vinyl |
Belgium Proxis - EUR 18.99 Proxis - EUR 21.99 (This is the deluxe version) Finland France Germany Italy Netherlands
Poland Portugal
Sweden Switzerland
UK |
Australia Sanity - AU$27.94 Sanity - AU$28.24 (This is the deluxe version) HMV - AU$29.99 HMV - AU$29.99 (This is the deluxe version) Chaos Music - AU$31.95 Brazil Israel Japan New Zealand
|
Single Pre-Orders
US
Ideal Copy - $3.49 (This is the 7" vinyl) Ideal Copy - $6.99 CD Universe - $7.49 Canada
|
France FNAC - EUR 9.30 Germany
|
The long and winding road to the new album:
It all begin with this statement posted on Oct. 3rd, 2000 at the official Cure website:
"there's a whisper that when we finish in australia we may be going back into the studio.. more news coming.. ".
That was changed to "there's a whisper that when we finish in australia we will be going into the studio... more news coming...". Notice the change from "may be" to "will be"?
Then we had many interesting quotes from Robert while on the Australian tour:
While most indications seem to point to the break-up
of The Cure by the end of this year, Robert Smith hasn’t
been sitting around despondently, even when on break
from the band’s Dreamtour, staged in support of their most
recent album Bloodflowers. On the contrary, Smith
has been busy writing a new batch of songs, in an approach that
embraces the future while paying heed to his past.
“It’s what I’ve been doing this summer,” he explains,
“’cause we’ve had about two months off. I’ve pretty much
finished writing another album. I’ve actually gone
back to how I wrote The Head On The Door album (1985). I’m
using the same equipment, I dug it out of an old
box in my garage that I hadn’t opened up since I moved. There’s a
little four-track and various old effects pedals.
I plugged them all in and thought ‘well this is how I used to do it’.
“It’s really nice, actually, getting back to that
incredibly simple way of just putting four things down that have to
work with each other to make a song.”
Adding to the ‘are-they-breaking-up-or-aren’t-they?’
riddle that is both tantalising and terrifying Cure fans the
world over, Smith is non-committal as to whether
the resultant LP would be a Cure album or a solo release.
“Either way I’d probably get the others to play
on it anyway,” he says. “I’m getting on with them so well I can’t
really see any point in asking anyone else to do
it. In some ways it’s really whether I want to think ‘is now the time I
want to be a solo artiste or do The Cure make another
record?’ To me it’s more important what it sounds like. I
don’t really worry about what it’s going to be called
until I’ve done something else.”
(September 29th X-press Magazine)
If his audience does wonder what will come next
it is perhaps because Smith himself struggles to maintain a firm
path. When the latest album, Bloodflowers, was released,
Smith noted that it would represent the band's last studio
album. Now he's not so sure.
"When we were making Bloodflowers I certainly
intended it to be the last studio album, but I think the enjoyment
I've derived from the shows we've played so far
this year has changed my mind a bit in that regard. I've never
enjoyed the band as much as I have this year in
all the years I've been doing it. I've never had as much contentment
I suppose, on stage as well as off. We're playing
really well and the shows and audiences have been fantastic. I
thought it would be pretty dumb to say 'let's stop
now'. I'll probably be tempted to record something after this tour
of Australia just to see what happens and I won't
mind if it doesn't work. I don't have any long-term plans. If
Bloodflowers ends up the last studio album The Cure
makes then I will be happy with that. I will be content. It was
supposed to be."
(Sydney street paper The Drum Media Oct. 3rd,
2000)
D.J - The moment I heard Out Of This World from
Blood Flowers it sounded like a goodbye from a much loved
friend. Was that the sense you had when you made
Blood Flowers that it was like saying goodbye to friends who
had travelled a path with you for over 20 years?
R.S - Yeah I think that particularly with Out
Of This World I was just trying to get that sense that I often have
which is a kind of curse that whenever I'm enjoying
something im always thinking that its gonna end... and then i
realised that within that framework that I could
actually make you know , use it to like you know....use it too..... i
was imagining that I would be on stage singing it
when I was kinda like fine tuning it. So it was intentional opening
the album like that , we open the show with it as
well we have done every night this year and it kinda sets the mood.
The weird thing is that in the course of this year
ive had so much fun with the band I think because of the songs that
weve been playing and just the mood generally onstage
that um , im very loathed to just walk away from it without
trying something new so um at the moment weve got
a pretty firm plan to go back into the studio virtually as soon
as we get home from Australia.
D.J - Robert Smith there , never say never they might still record a new album. Playing tonight in Adelaide
( interview on Triple J radio on Oct 12th, 2000
(recorded at the Triple J studios on Oct. 9th or 10th)
With the future of the Cure uncertain, Smith has
long talked about a solo album. But he says now it might turn into
another Cure album. "I'm torn. I like the idea of
BloodFlowers being the last Cure album, but I'm not sure I
wouldn't rather see what this line up (of the Cure)
does with some of the songs I've earmarked for my solo record.
"There's no big career plan. I'll try something.
If it works it'll probably be a Cure album, if it doesn't I'll probably
get some real musicians in!"
(Australian Herald Sun newspaper on Oct. 12th,
2000)
Caller: "I just wanted to ask about the possibility of you making a solo album after The Cure are finished."
RS: "Um yeah I've already sort of done it. I
keep putting it off because I'm enjoying myself with the band too much,
so most of its written and I've contacted the various
people, other artists that I want to play on it to see if they're
interested and most of them have said yes. So I
expect I'll start it sometime next year, probably next spring. But I
think what we are going to try first when we get
home from Australia, I think we're all going to into the studio and
try another Cure album. See what happens, but if
it doesn't work, you know....anyway, thank you for asking."
Caller: "My question is you've mentioned doing
some demos for the next album, I was wondering if it will be along
the same lines as the trilogy or whether you're going
to have a new direction once again?"
RS: "Well the others were expecting me to, I
mean usually I react against, you know like when we did
Disintegration, the next we did was Mixed Up which
was like remixes, I think the others were expecting me to do
something similar, but I'm surprised myself actually
by continuing on in pretty much the same vein as Bloodflowers,
I think because I've enjoyed making the album and
playing the songs this year that the songs I've written are in a
similar mood, if anything, they're more miserable.
But I haven't quite decided on how to approach it lyrically yet,
but certainly musically it's very, the more atmospheric
side of the band, sort of like that part. There are no radio
singles I fear on the next album either."
(Robert as guest DJ on Triple J radio - Oct. 14th,
2000)
So mid-November came around and nothing happened. Obviously, the recording plans were scrapped. Plans were then made to go into the studio early in 2001.
Then on Jan. 31st, I posted the following on the COF news page:
"A source spoke to Robert last week and provided
us with this update on the status of some of the things being
discussed for the near future:
New Album - The band is on holiday now but they
will start recording next month, working on some new ideas and if
something good comes out of that, they will eventually
release it. But only if they think it works. Everyone is said to
be very excited and they really want to record something."
Well once again, plans changed. This time however, no one was saying anything about the sessions being pushed back or rescheduled. It looked like there wouldn't be any studio work until after the summer (if then).
But by mid-April, rumblings about the sessions
begin to surface again, and then Dave Gahan appeared on WLIR
radio
in New York on April 12th and had this to say:
"Andre (DJ): Do they still put you guys in the
same classification now as The Cure or are you hearing less of that
now? Because you guys have been compared sometimes.
Dave Gahan: Well I think that's good company.
I've always liked The Cure and I know they're making a new
record right now, so that's cool. And actually, our
friend Daryl who used to work for us, he works for The Cure now
and we still stay in touch."
Ah ha! So the new album had not been abandoned
after all. Great news, but how much does Dave Gahan really
know? Could he be believed? How recently had he
spoken to the band? And when were the new sessions scheduled
to begin?
Those questions were answered when I was sent
this e-mail from someone who had been in contact with Perry a few
days ago:
"we are due to go into a studio in may to start demos for a new album"
And NME mentioned the new album in a story about the band's upcoming appearance at the Roskilde Festival:
"The show will be the band's only festival appearance
this summer, although a UK spokesperson for the band told
NME.COM they had been in the studio this year working
on new material."
Unfortunately, the sessions have been delayed yet again. They are now "penciled in" to start in mid-August.
And that's where we stand as of now. As more news
comes out, I will post it here and on the news page. Let's just
hope that everything works out, the sessions go
well and that the album is ready for release late this year.
Well, looks like we won't see the new album until sometime in 2002 at the earliest. The band are now working on new tracks to be added to a Greatest Hits collection due out in November 2001.
March 2002 - While work on the new album will continue this year, the album probably won't be released until 2003.
April 10th, 2002 - The new album has entered the early demos stage and the band have had their first "demo listening".
June 26th, 2002 -
Robert made the following comments about the new album to German magazine
Zillo (July/Aug.
issue):
- solo album is done, still has to be mixed
- at the moment, Robert favours adding it as a bonus disc to the next cure album
- band will go into the studio september-december with a possible release in spring
- new album will be released on their own label, signing a deal with an american indie label as distributor shortly
- robert's songwriting has changed: more intellectual
ideas like where the birds always sing, the lyrics shouldn't be
about him any longer
- still mistrust about the new songs, as the more
intellectual ones are rarely his faves so far, not that convinced
about the new stuff so far
- but he has to sing them during rehearsels for the 1st time
July 2nd, 2002 -
Robert made the following comments about the new album to German magazine
Sonic Seducer
(July/Aug. issue):
- at the moment stuff is going into darker directions,
wrong number, will probably be the last song that can be seen
as sth different
- his solo album is recorded has still to be mixed
- takes too long to work on his solostuff, so
it should come out with the next cure record, and people will hopefully
be positively surprised
- he enjoys doing new stuff with the band
July 14, 2002 - Robert has been doing some interviews while on the festival tour and made these interesting comments:
- The recording of the new album may be pushed
back, due to a "mystery"event (Robert wouldn't say exactly what
it was) in October. Robert said they have an offer
for a very special one-off event that could possibly turn into a
DVD, and that was so unique and important to him
that he's considering starting the recording of the new album a
little later than originally planned.
- Apparently 40 new songs exist for the upcoming
album, and Robert is currently in the process of selecting the 10
or so to be recorded for the album.
Well as we all know now, that "mystery event"
was the Trilogy shows. And so 2003 brought us the Trilogy dvd,
numerous Robert collaborations, a couple of live
shows and the preparation of the remasterd albums and the Dots
b-side collection. A busy year, yet still no signs
of a new album. But late in the year, The Cure finally entered the studio
to began pre-production work. That went very well, and recording of the album
started on Jan. 26th,
2004. That brings us up to today and only leaves
a few more months to wait. Yes, after a 4 year tease, we are
finally going to see a new Cure album!