By his own admission, The Cure's Robert Smith hasn't been out of the house much in a while but he's definitely bee busy. And when he does emerge; he makes it count.
Last night (3 March) he joined Scottish synth-rock outfit Chvrches to pick up an award for Best Song By A UK Artist for last year's collaboration, How Not To Drown, and performed Cure classic Just Like Heaven together onstage. Smith also had some big news to share.
I can't stand the anticipation for much longer – it's killing me!
"I've been working on two Cure albums and one of them's finished, but unfortunately it's the second one that's finished. So the first one… I've got to do four vocals. So it's ten songs on each album. We're mixing next month – 1st of April we start mixing, so I've got three weeks to finish.
"I know what it's called", Smith added. "It's called Songs Of A Lost World. It's got artwork and it's got a running order so it's almost done. It will be out in… they're so slow because of vinyl and stuff but it might come out as early as September probably, I think. I'd rather it just came out. I can't stand the anticipation for much longer – it's killing me!"
The title certainly suggests The Cure in gloriously gloomy mode. And we already know the creative process has posed some challenges for the iconic musician. Smith also elaborated on previous reports he was working on two albums with a contrast of poppier songs and 'unlistenable noise.'
"The first Cure album is relentlessly doom and gloom, I have to say," he confirmed. "It is the doomiest thing we've ever done. The second one is upbeat and my own [the third album Smith is working on that's said to be more experimental] won't be out until next year.
" I have to keep revisiting it because it's a thing I've wanted to do for so many years, I realised I've got one shot at doing it," he says of the solo project. "So I've now started to add real instruments like acoustic instruments. While this time two years ago it was literally just feedback but I've kind of grown a little disenchanted with it, I'd listened to it like three times and thought, this is rubbish. So I'm not so worried about that [now].
"But The Cure album, we're about to mix it. That's the deadline so artwork, title, mixing. It'll be real very soon."
Even Smith's September ambition slip for the release, the album will arrive before The Cure's UK tour dates in December so get ready for a gloomy Christmas!
