The Cure's new album will be “on the darker side of the spectrum”

The Cure's Robert Smith (Image credit: Mariano Regidor/Redferns - Getty)

Last year, The Cure (opens in new tab) revealed they were planning their first album since 2008’s 4:13 Dream (opens in new tab).

They’ve spend much of the time since then on tour and recently delivered an epic set as Glastonbury headliners and celebrated a triumphant return to Scotland earlier this month – the first time they’ve played in the country for 27 years.

Now, vocalist and guitarist Robert Smith has spoken with NME (opens in new tab) and revealed that personal loss has shaped the sound of the record – and he's also revealed the working title.

He says: “It’s very much on the darker side of the spectrum. I lost my mother and my father and my brother recently, and obviously it had an effect on me.

“It’s not relentlessly doom and gloom. It has soundscapes on it, like Disintegration (opens in new tab). I was trying to create a big palette – a big wash of sound.”

He adds: “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.”

The Cure are hoping to complete work on the album later this year.

The band will also release The Cure 40 Live: Curætion 25 + Anniversary on October 18.

Curætion 25: From There To Here / From Here To There was filmed on the final night of the 25th Meltdown festival in 2018 that was curated by Smith – a performance which saw The Cure play a track from each of their studio albums along with new, previously unreleased songs.

Anniversary: 1978-2018 was captured at their British Summer Time show at London’s Hyde Park in 2018 (opens in new tab) in celebration of The Cure’s 40th anniversary.

The Cure 40 Live: Curætion 25 + Anniversary (opens in new tab)

The Cure 40 Live: Curætion 25 + Anniversary (opens in new tab)
This double live package contains The Cure's performance from the Robert Smith-curated Meltdown Festival and their landmark 40th anniversary show at London's Hyde Park in 2018.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers and magazines as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. After initially joining our news desk in the summer of 2014, he moved to the e-commerce team full-time in 2020. He maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott grew up listening to rock and prog, cutting his teeth on bands such as Marillion and Magnum before his focus shifted to alternative and post-punk in the late 80s. His favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Ned's Atomic Dustbin and Drab Majesty, but he also still has a deep love of Rush.