The Cure will release their long-awaited 14th studio album Songs of a Lost World on November 1, and to offer fans some insight into what to expect from the record, frontman Robert Smith has conducted a wide-ranging 100-minute interview with BBC 6Music presenter Matt Everitt for his band's Songs of a Lost World website.
Towards the end of the conversation, filmed at London's world-famous Abbey Road Studios, Smith is asked if he could select his 10 favourite Cure songs.
Perhaps predictably, the 65-year-old musician swerves the question - “If I answer now I’d change it halfway though,” he admits - but instead, he offers to choose one song from each of the band's 13 albums which he feels reflects the mood and tone of the songs he's written for album number 14.
Here is Smith's personally 'cure-rated' playlist...
Three Imaginary Boys (Three Imaginary Boys, 1979)
“It’s a song I’d be happy with now. It still resonates with me.”
At Night (Seventeen Seconds, 1980)
“We play that a lot live. It has the same kind of mood as this album, it would fit quite happily on this album I think.”
Faith (Faith, 1981)
“When I wrote that I can remember thinking, Ah, I can write songs! It was actually the first song I was really, really proud of. There’s not much to it, and yet there’s something about it. It was everything I wanted it to be. I could’ve given up after I wrote Faith, I thought, That's it, I proved to myself that I can do it.”
Cold (Pornography, 1982)
“We’ve been playing that a lot live in the last few years. That would fit on this album, mood-wise and musically.”
The Top (The Top, 1984)
“The Top would kinda fit, that’s a weird song, with a strange sort of mood.”
Sinking (The Head on the Door, 1985)
“Again, a bit of doom and gloom… but the whole album’s a bit more bright and breezy than this that we've done.”
If Only Tonight We Could Sleep (Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, 1987)
“That’s another song we’ve played live quite a bit over the last few years. There’s a lovely kind of moods to it when it’s played well.”
Untitled (Disintegration, 1989)
“That is one of my favourite Cure songs. I like that I didn’t title it, I know it's really stupid [laughs] but I had the courage to not bother thinking of a title.”
To Wish Impossible Things (Wish, 1992)
“That’s another one of my favourite Cure songs. We never play that, I don’t know why, but that would fit happily - or unhappily -on this album.”
Treasure (Wild Mood Swings, 1996)
“That's about loss, that was inspired by a Christina Rossetti poem, another one inspired by someone else’s words.”
The Last Day of Summer (Bloodflowers, 2000)
“That’s become a favourite. I was never quite sure about it as a song, but I think it is a good song.”
Before Three (The Cure, 2004)
“The Cure album is probably my least favourite album that we’ve made. I don't like some of it, it's the only album that I don’t think works. Before Three is a good song, that would probably work ”
The Hungry Ghost (4:13 Dream, 2008)
“It wouldn’t fit on this album, but I do like it. It’s about how people are consumed by wanting more and more and more, including me.”
The entire interview can be viewed here.
