The Cure's next album "could be their last" says Robert Smith

14 June 2021, 11:06 | Updated: 14 June 2021, 11:07

The frontman has revealed that writing lyrics for the new Cure album has been difficult: "I thought, 'This is rubbish'."

Robert Smith has been hinting that the next release - or releases - from The Cure could well be their very last.

The frontman has been working on two albums - one "doom and gloom" and the other a collection of lighter songs - in the past couple of years, but has revealed that writing the lyrics has been difficult.

Speaking to The Sunday Times, Smith said: “The new Cure stuff is very emotional. It’s 10 years of life distilled into a couple of hours of intense stuff.

“And I can’t think we’ll ever do anything else. I definitely can’t do this again.”

It's not the first time that Smith has threatened to call time on The Cure - 2000's Bloodflowers was their final album for the Fiction label and was widely touted as their final piece of work. But three years later, The Cure went into the studio to work with producer Ross Robinson on what became their 2004 self-titled LP.

The Cure haven't released an album since 2008's 4:13 Dream, which was originally supposed to be a double collection - one light album, one dark.

THE CURE - FRIDAY I'M IN LOVE (40 LIVE - CURÆTION-25 + ANNIVERSARY)

Now, for the follow-up, Smith is planning a similar release. He told Apple Music recently: “Probably in about six weeks’ time I’ll be able to say when everything’s coming out and what we’re doing next year and everything … We were doing two albums and one of them is very, very doom and gloom and the other one isn’t."

THE CURE - DISINTEGRATION (40 LIVE - CURÆTION-25 + ANNIVERSARY)

In the latest interview, the musician admitted that writing lyrics for the new Cure songs was a sticking point.

He told the Times: "I must admit, I've struggled more with finishing the words to these new Cure recordings than at any other point. We recorded 20-odd song sand I wrote nothing. I mean, I wrote a lot, but a the the end I looked at it and thought, 'This is rubbish'.

"The difficulty is I've become such a harsh critic of myself I think 'Who's going to be interested in that?'"