Hey, its Michelangelo, with a chisel and half a lunch break
Songs of a Lost World: A Review
y o u k n o w w i t h th e a r t i sssss t i c typ oooo g r aph y!
1. Alone
Something doesn’t sit right in this track, a sort of overdrive that doesn’t quite hit the mark. The supposedly melancholic melody just irritates me. It’s the interplay of that ugly overdrive with the overly sentimental melody that makes me reluctant to replay this one anytime soon. Not a great start when it’s the album opener.
“‘This is the end of every song that I sing’” might be the most sincere lyric on the album—because this one’s dead on arrival.
2. And Nothing is Forever
When I heard this, I thought of a hypothetical episode called ‘Lassie is Dead.’ I can see Lassie lying there, breathing his last. But again, something’s off with the mastering. There’s an element here that’s overdriven again. The Vangelis-like buildup? No, this is unbearable. Next!
3. A Fragile Thing
The first track that sounds even a bit like “The Cure.” This should have opened the album instead of that poorly-mastered mess. Although, even here I can hear the distortion creeping in, which spoils the entire song once you catch it. At best, it’s a passable Cure song.
4. War
Oh, now they’ve gone “space rock” on us, channeling Hawkwind! It was fine until Robert charged in hollering “I am death, you are life,” or some such cosmic wisdom. Seems he missed the memo on how Hawkwind subtly threads their vocals. Robert, Hawkwind is more than a bluster, I swear.
5. Drone – Nodrone
Again, the abominable mastering. I don’t know. At the start, this song was actually quite listenable for about 40 seconds, and then it just became a mess. And chaos doesn’t work when it’s too Vangelis-like. That’s the core problem, I think. The Hawkwind sound fundamentally doesn’t fit The Cure.
6. I Can Never Say Goodbye
Ugh, here comes that pompous Greek influence again. What did he do here, slather an overdriven amp on a pad synth? Or is that supposed to be a guitar? Yet another track that’s simply unlistenable.
7. All I Ever Am
No, a mess is something you need to understand, and Robert just doesn’t. He should have stuck to what he knows. If you’re pushing eighty and your hearing’s on the decline, sure, you can master an album yourself just as Biden can stay president, but it’s baffling no one from the record label (does he still have one?) stepped in to protect him. Hearing this, you start to miss the old record execs.
8. Endsong
And finally, Vangelis doused with nautical tragedy as the schooner sails, sopping, to the lost world’s edge. It’s high time to retire, they say, and this album might be Exhibit A. I see rave reviews peppering the charts, and I wonder, did those reviewers even press play?
In summary: This album is less a musical journey and more like your uncle deciding to release a “mystical spoken word album” after a single whiskey tasting. There’s overdrive, there’s underwhelming over-emotion, and somewhere in there, the actual Cure got lost at sea. If the world were actually ending, this would be an appropriate soundtrack—mainly because no one would have to suffer through it for long.
