The Cure’s Chameleonic Success from Goth Anthem to Global Icon

The Cure has been around for so long that the members should have retired, started attending weekly bingo sessions, and become obliging participants in middle-aged life. Yet, 47 years on from its founding in 1978, the band continues to release music and perform with the same unmistakable sound that makes them seem now both a little too old and a little too cool for their own good. Robert Smith’s voice rings so clear in the 2024 album, Songs Of A Lost World, that it has been widely compared to the 1989 album, Disintegration, the band’s magnum opus. Between these two releases, the band has defied the unofficial rule that a rock band should implode, break up, or make excessive use of the word “reunion” to avoid fading into the dust-ridden hall of fame. But with seventeen million monthly listeners and a sold-out world tour in the last two years, The Cure remains relevant and beloved by its fans.

The enduring popularity of the band owes a lot to its familiar sound. Fans expect instrumental degradation when a band has been around for so long, but Robert Smith’s voice cuts right through the years, unfaltering. It inspires a new comfort that perhaps not everything is as transient as we expect it to be, defying the existential lyricism he so often sings about. When asked about his secret to the voice of immortal youth, he simply shrugs, laughs, and professes his own confusion at the fact. Having never given up on their sound, The Cure remains true to a stylised fusion of new wave instrumentals and gothic rock lyricism.

It is not only Robert Smith’s voice that remains the same, but his image too. He appears on stage looking impossibly pale, with smeared lipstick, dishevelled hair, and black clothing donned just the same as when he first debuted the look in the ‘70s. It feels like bumping into someone from school years down the line, and while all the trends around us have changed a hundred times over, they are still wearing the same clothes they always wore with a childlike smile that has not been worn down by age. You feel almost inclined to thank them for reminding you of what once was, for not changing when everything else did. Smith prompts the same reaction, creating a relationship between himself and his fans that can be relied upon.

The Cure creates a feeling of reciprocity with its fans, rather than a service. Through their intellectual lyricism, the band relies on their listeners to understand music beyond its surface-level offerings. One of their earliest singles, ‘Killing an Arab’ (1979), takes its story from the absurdist writings of Albert Camus’ L’Étranger. In providing something beyond mindless lyrics, the music encourages an intellectual sphere of engagement, a compliment to the listeners. In the same manner, the production of Disintegration challenged the Nietzschean ideal of transcending despair through art. In sharing their music, they provide a comfort detached from the nihilist assumption of despair. The Cure’s music became something that people could turn to in a state of melancholy; not for escapism, but for empathy. The range between the joyous tones of ‘Friday I’m in Love’ and the surreal fear induced by ‘Lullaby’ seems an insight into the complexity of being human, a soundtrack to life.

In a recent interview with Stephen Thompson, Robert Smith declared that, with no children to impose it upon, he has no concern for legacy. In classic existentialist fashion, he states, “That’s what I do, it's just there. And how it will end is how it will end.” His efforts to live in the moment and produce music that does the same encourages his listeners to reproduce the sentiment. His music will always remain familiar because it is at the same time a product of his earliest album and everything we are experiencing in the present day. While hope for more music may have dwindled in the sixteen-year gap between 4:13 Dream (2008) and Songs Of A Lost World (2024), the vitality of Robert Smith seems as mighty as ever. So when he cries out “This is the end!” in the recent album’s opening track, I advise not to take this to heart.

Image from Wikimedia Commons