Year: 2024.
Country:
The Cure discography rank: 7 (out of 40 listed on BEA)
2024 rank: 4
2020s rank: 16
Overall rank: 766
Average rating: 81/100 (from 293 votes).
Tracks:
1. Alone
2. And Nothing Is Forever
3. A Fragile Thing
4. Warsong
5. Drone: Nodrone
6. I Can Never Say Goodbye
7. All I Ever Am
8. Endsong
indicates a top-rated track.
Top voted comments:
"The first album from the Crawley band in 16 years is well worth the wait, the atmospheres generated are very reminiscent of Disintegration and Robert Smith's vocal performance is strong.
One I'd definitely recommend if you're a fan of the group"
- @SD100852 (Rating: 90/100)
________________________________________________________
"When listening to this album... wow... I can do nothing more than place it in the best album of 2024 and the second of the 20s... what an atmosphere...a masterpiece..."
- @StreakyNuno (Rating: 100/100)
________________________________________________________
About album of the day: The BestEverAlbums.com album of the day is the album appearing most prominently in member charts in the previous 24 hours. If an album, or artist, has previously been selected within a x day period, the next highest album is picked instead (and so on) to ensure a bit of variety. A full history of album of the day can be viewed here. _________________ Bluesky · Facebook · Spotify · X
How to make a comeback record or how to make a compelling disc that sticks to your roots whilst you are grandpa age?
When I heard upon it's release, it was like the worst song was Alone and then the record slowly progressed in a more dynamic route until we reached the end with the biggest masterpiece. The reason why I found Alone to be mid at first, was highly cause of the keyboard through the whole song: it's as amateurish as a person with no musical knowledge thinking "how should I set an atmosphere" and playing the most simple notes. That said, all other instruments, especially the wavy guitar and earthly bassline, create a satisfying scape. That is a common throughout the album's best tunes, they're all atmospherically THICK. Robert dreams of past times and subtly mourns "where did it go?". Typical, but the execution is all but plain, it's great.
Though Drone:Nodrone is said by many by most to be the absolute weakest on the record, and you know I just, don't, get it! If there ever was a spiritual and thriving counterbrother to Fascination Street, it's this. The difference here is that the drums, although still derivative of the 80s new wave but set to a 2020s production, are organic; the guitar are washing them in Yo La Tengo-ish gestures, unlike FS where they sounded a bit more orchestrated. Previously, it was the guitar who brought most of the hard riffs, here the guitar is influencing the atmosphere whereas the repeated piano gets more shine.
Lastly, the engineering of not only FS but all of Disintegration was brilliantly lush, this song is fuller and punchier. If Fascination Street was a main theme of a cool nightmare, Drone:Nodrone is a speed drive where the nightmare have become reality. It almost ends as disappointingly as some of the other, but those 10 seconds of scatterbrained synths kind of makes up for it because they sound awesome.
Because yeah a few of the songs have a lackluster ending, case in point the warm A Fragile Thing. However the worst one being Warsong, it's kind of sudden and goes against the typical Cure-characteristic of letting the song live out fully. To its defense, the topic of war and poison can lead to sudden death, and maybe that's why it can have a purpose, and even in the midst of the Cure-world of musicianship, that funereal keyboard is quite excellent of a touch. The band shows in I Can Never Say Goodbye they have that songwriting where it feels like you've heard it many more times than you initially have because of how familiar and welcoming it is. Mostly the piano melody is classic Cure, but also the words to his brother grates the song to higher territory. "Something wicked this way comes, to steal away my brother's life" almost hurts.
I would say that And Nothing Is Forever could be the most lighthearted and hopeful song here. Mostly cause the keyboard's harmony with piano is even less of post-punk, and it lyrically covers the hope of Robert wanting to be with his brother (in my interpretation), calling out to him. Also love the callback to Lovesong ("However far away"), the brightest song on Disintegration. SellMeAGod called it poppy depression, and who can beg to differ?!
I would say the oldest sounding song on SoALW is All I Ever Am, cause this could've been on the deluxe of Seventeen Seconds. This is also the only song that grew off me a little bit. I still enjoy it, but it does not contain any of the otherworldly melodiousness nor the melancholic soulfulness that fuels the greatest material. Just like Alone, the keyboard is amateurish. The best part, other than Robert's observant statement of "I lose all my life like this, reflecting time and memories (...) All I hold to in belief that all I ever am, is somehow never quite all I am now" is that piano lick that reminds me of Gorillaz' Desole. If it wasn't for the Rob's performance in the chorus nailing it, I would take this as an intermission between the predecessor and succeeding track.
And then, Endsong, like...wow. Endsong. I...., this is one of the best songs of the 2020s. Almost their longest song, if not slightly beaten by Watching Me Fall, it incorporates the hypnosis of Yo La Tengo with the psychedelic depth of The Doors, and then with the utter melancholia, the stunningly ethereal idiosyncratic soundscape of themselves. Has anybody said that the drum groove is perfect, I cannot help but bop my head as if it's an MJ song, despite it being so dreamy and moody simultaneously. Colossal. Everything you see fading away from your spiritual eyesight is captured by the lingering guitar riff. This time, it takes almost seven minutes of awe-inspiring musicianship before you hear Robert transporting in with the dear and heartbreaking statements about old age. "It's all gone" and "Left alone with nothing at the end of every song" not only are devastating, not only communicate his status of where he is late in life but also summarize his philosophy and sophisticated emotions he's had his entire life. Yet, if we take I Can Never Say Goodbye into account, it also illustrates the fact that he can never come to terms with it; he wants content in his life and that's part of why he feels alone. Even if we take the record's last seconds of fuzz, it's himself dusting away, being gone. Looking at the big picture, it's a potent description of Robert's inner feelings.
During the entirety of the disc, Robert Smith does not sound a day over 30. If you gave me Disintegration and this album back in 2019 and said to me they were released the same year, I would believe you in a heartbeat. Maybe he doesn't feature as many high note moments, but again he's 65. The grief is authentic and contagious. Singing about his brother and also his own mortality, it ends up sending chills down my spine. Here, I'd like to point out that the effect is stronger since it's been decades since they peaked; it's like life goes by so quickly for Robert and now this is where he is left. And also considering the hiatus where he and co. probably have had lives to deal with (including Robert doing his night-farm thing), people've lost families and those old depressing feelings have found their way back, but in a different light. And that different light is also what differs this album slightly from Disintegration and Pornography.
Spectrum Pulse made a point about "it also feels like a phenomenal capstone to a legacy rather that one that adds new dimension". To me, that's totally fine, because (and maybe it's my amount of stupidity) that I cannot imagine more scapes coming from them, so them coloring the same house with new brushes is enough, yeah. Being in their 60s and still showing all the sauce, it signals that no one can sound like The Cure quite like The Cure. _________________ My Top 100 :
www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=4...amp;page=1
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