The day has finally arrived: after teasing new album Songs of a Lost World for, well, years — but especially heavily over the past month — and previewing its lead single "Alone" late last week, the Cure have finally released their first new song in 16 years.
"It's the track that unlocked the record; as soon as we had that piece of music recorded I knew it was the opening song, and I felt the whole album come into focus," Robert Smith explained of the six-minute, 53-second epic. "I had been struggling to find the right opening line for the right opening song for a while, working with the simple idea of 'being alone,' always in the back of my mind this nagging feeling that I already knew what the opening line should be."
"As soon as we finished recording I remembered the poem 'Dregs' by the English poet Ernest Dowson, and that was the moment when I knew the song — and the album — were real."
Fans won't be one bit disappointed by "Alone," which feels like a quintessential Cure song. In their cinematic mode, Smith and co. gracefully wallow in the way only they can with long, drawn-out instrumental breaks and the frontman's unmistakably sterling voice cushioned by downy atmospherics.
No further details about Songs of a Lost World have been shared yet, but it's now available for pre-order — and if the band's hints are to be believed, it should arrive in full on November 1. Revel in the grandeur of "Alone" below.