The Cure’s Songs Of A Lost World album has been outselling the rest of the UK top 10 combined... proving musical taste isn't dead.
The legendary post-punk act’s latest LP hit the No1 spot on the UK Albums Chart upon release and looks set to remain there after its first week of availability.
Robert Smith’s group released their 14th studio album last Friday during a week which saw them play two shows at the iconic BBC Radio Theatre before going on to perform the new record for fans at London’s Troy on release day.
According to trade magazine Music Week, Songs Of A Lost World had racked up 40,918 sales, outselling the rest of the top 10 albums combined in the midweek charts in the first couple of days, made up of 36,970 physical release, whilst downloads accounted for 2,838 and streams made up 1,110 sales.
The band’s new album – which also marked The Cure’s first release of original material in 16 years – is also on its way being their first record to land the Number One spot on the charts since their 1992 LP Wish.
The release is outselling other Top 10 contenders by the likes of Sabrina Carpenter, Tyler, The Creator, Charlie XCX, Ed Sheeran, Gracie Abrams and Chappell Roan combined.
In a career that now spans more than 40 years, The Cure have claimed 11 additional Top 10 LPs in the UK, as well as four Top 10 singles. As Songs Of A Lost World eyes Number 1, the band’s Greatest Hits could also re-enter the Top 40 at Number 25.
Across 14 albums, The Cure - spearheaded by frontman Robert Smith - have been labelled many things as a band; goth-rock, New Wave, post-punk, alternative.
They also have a string of pop classics to their name including Boys Don't Cry, Friday I'm in Love and Let's Go To Bed. Perhaps the greatest of them all is A Forest which peaked at No 31 in the charts back in 1980, though undeniably a classic.
Their very first release was 1978's Killing An Arab though they are better known as an albums band.
Songs of a Lost World has, quite rightly, been receiving rave reviews.
NME described it as: “Merciless? Yes, but there’s always enough heart in the darkness and opulence in the sound to hold you and place these songs alongside The Cure’s finest. The frontman suggested that another two records may be arriving at some point, but Songs Of A Lost World feels sufficient enough for the wait we’ve endured, just for being arguably the most personal album of Smith’s career. Mortality may loom, but there’s colour in the black and flowers on the grave.”
The band are due to hit the road in 2025.
Smith, 65, said: “We’ll start up again next year. Seriously, I have to finish the second album. We were going to play festivals next year, but then I decided that we weren’t going to play anything next summer. The next time we go out on stage will be autumn next year.
“But then we’ll probably be playing quite regularly through until the next anniversary – the 2028 anniversary. It’s looming on the horizon. The 2018 one I started to think about in late 2016, thinking, ‘I’ve got a year and a half, it’s easy!’
“And yet I still didn’t manage to get there in time. Now, I’m starting to think, ‘2028, I must get things in order’; so [that’s] the documentary film and things like that.”
Smith also revealed his wife Mary Poole Smith helped him finalise the track listing for the album.
He said: “I was finishing the doom and gloom ones… and [Mary] said no, no, no your best albums are the ones that just have a couple of… more upbeat tracks. She was right.
“I wanted to finish everything, because I thought that’s only fair to all the songs, like they’re all little children – I don’t want to pick favourites.”
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