The Cure’s new album could be out this summer, and Robert Smith has just detailed two songs set to appear on it

Robert Smith onstage with The Cure in 2023 — (Image credit: Scott Legato/Getty Images)

Robert Smith has detailed two songs set for The Cure’s next album, which could be out as soon as this summer.

In a new interview on Radio X, the singer/guitarist talks about two tracks The Cure have played live but did not make it onto November album Songs Of A Lost World. He starts with It Can Never Be The Same, first performed in 2016.

“[The next album] 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,” says Smith (via NME).

“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.”

The frontman also discusses a song called A Boy I Never Knew, which he’s previously said was written for The Cure’s 2004 self-titled album but went unreleased.

“I think that would probably make it on,” he says. “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.”

Talking about The Cure’s next album more generally, Smith claims that, as well as unreleased but familiar material, it will have “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,” he adds. “So I don’t know, it may well end up being heavier than this one.”

Smith wants the new album to be out “hopefully before [the] summer”. He’s “currently finishing” the project, which just needs to be mixed.

If The Cure’s 15th album does indeed materialise this year, it will mark a significantly sped-up turnaround for the goth icons. Songs Of A Lost World was the band’s first studio release since 2008.

However, Smith has been quietly working on new music since 2010, and he said around the release of Songs… that the album will be the first of a trilogy of records.

“Having finished this one, the second one is virtually finished as well,” he claimed. “The third one is a bit more difficult because, well if we get that far… Talking about the third album, you see what I mean? I just can’t help myself.”

Smith also recently revealed that he has a “really catchy” pop song in The Cure’s vault, and that it could become a festive anthem if given the right lyrics.

Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Metal Hammer and Prog, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, NME and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.