Critics give Songs of a Lost World a B-Side Breakdown of 90 (A-), from 18 reviews at outlets we track. Scores run 70 to 100.
The verdict on Songs of a Lost World
17 of 18 critics liked it, and they mostly agree.
- Highest 100 Cult Following, The Guardian, NME and 3 more
- Lowest 70 The Needle Drop
- By the numbers The best-reviewed album of The Cure's career on B-Side Breakdowns, ahead of Disintegration (88). The second best-reviewed album of 2024 we've tracked.
| The gist | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cult Followingby Ewan Gleadow | 5/5 | 100 | 2024 | “Robert Smith has not so much hinted at finality for The Cure as much as he has spelled it out for us. We are closer to the end than the…” |
| The Guardian via Wikipediaby Alexis Petridis | 5/5 | 100 | 2024 | “The band are at an artistic peak on their first album in 16 years: movingly melancholic, with a punchy sound to match the lyrics’ emotional impact” |
| NME via Wikipediaby Andrew Trendell | 5/5 | 100 | 2024 | “The NME review of The Cure's long-awaited first album in 16 years, 'Songs Of A Lost World' – dealing in death but with flowers on the grave” |
| Spill Magazine | 10/10 | 100 | “THE CURE SONGS OF A LOST WORLD POLYDOR/UNIVERSAL MUSIC Barring a reformation, it’s hard to imagine it ever being acceptable for most bands to take 16 years to release new…” | |
| XS Noize | 5.0/5 | 100 | “After a sixteen-year wait, Songs of a Lost World, The Cure's highly anticipated fourteenth studio album, has finally arrived. Rumours about the release date” | |
| Riff Magazine | 10/10 | 100 | “Much like the best Cure albums, "Songs Of a Lost World" isn’t just about the sadness. It’s about moving through the sadness.” | |
| Uncut via Wikipediaby Peter Watts | 9/10 | 90 | 2024 | |
| AllMusic via Wikipediaby Fred Thomas | 4.5/5 | 90 | 2024 | |
| musicOMH | 4.5/5 | 90 | “The first new album from Robert Smith and co in 16 years offers beautiful bleakness, the sort of sorrow that you just want to bathe in” | |
| Clash | 9/10 | 90 | 2024 | “Sometimes, fans can wait so long for something that when it's finally in their hands – or ears, in this case – they are filled with a sense of disbelief.” |
| Consequence | B+ | 88 | “The Cure are back with their first new album in 16 years, Songs of a Lost World, and they're just as depressive and beautiful as ever.” | |
| Beats Per Minute | 88% | 88 | “Music News, Reviews, Interviews, Videos and MP3s” | |
| Northern Transmissionsby Jarrett Edmund | 8.6/10 | 86 | 2024 | |
| The Line of Best Fit via Wikipediaby Joshua Mills | 8/10 | 80 | 2024 | “For illustrative purposes, Songs Of A Lost World is The Cure’s finest work since Thatcher was in power.” |
| Mojo via Wikipediaby Victoria Segal | 4/5 | 80 | 2024 | “Out this week on Fiction, The Cure’s first album in 16 years presents an audaciously bleak, beautiful journey towards the great unknown…” |
| Slant | 4/5 | 80 | “The album doesn’t feel overworked, and largely sounds like a band playing live in a room.” | |
| Pitchfork | 7.9/10 | 79 | 2024 | |
| The Needle Dropby Anthony Fantano | 7/10 | 70 | 2024 | “Comeback albums after so long are rarely this solid.” |
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Songs of a Lost World in The Cure's catalog
How these critics usually treat The Cure
- Pitchfork Harsher than usual11 points below the other critics here. Usually 9 points above on The Cure's other albums (10).
- The Guardian About usual for them11 points above the other critics here. Usually 6 points above on The Cure's other albums (8).
- Mojo About usual for them10 points below the other critics here. Usually 5 points below on The Cure's other albums (4).
- AllMusic About usual for them1 point above the other critics here. Usually 4 points below on The Cure's other albums (11).
- NME About usual for them11 points above the other critics here. Usually 8 points above on The Cure's other albums (6).
- Uncut About usual for them1 point above the other critics here. Usually 2 points above on The Cure's other albums (6).
From B-Side Guys
- More on The CureHollow Star Holds Back the Final Word of “Elegy”
More from The Cure
More Rock from around 2024
Would you spin it again?
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How the Breakdown works
Every outlet’s score is converted to 0–100 (2/5 is 40, 5.9/10 is 59, a B+ is 88) and averaged. Grades follow the B-Side scale: A is 90–100, B 80–89, C 70–79, D 60–69, F below 60. Approval is the share of critics who scored it 75 or higher; the Breakdown shows green at 75 and up, red below. Divisiveness asks a different question: not how many critics liked it, but how close their scores are to each other. Five critics who all give it 50 are Unanimous, even though none of them liked it. The labels run Unanimous, Broad agreement, Some debate, Divided, and Contentious. Replay rate comes from listeners, not critics: yes counts fully, a few tracks counts half, no counts zero. The gist quotes each outlet’s own summary of its review. Published is the date on the review itself, read from the outlet’s page, so you can see whether an album’s reputation came at release or years later. Scores marked est. come from reviews that publish no number. Scores marked via Wikipedia are archive ratings, mostly for older albums, taken from the “Professional ratings” box on the album’s Wikipedia page (published openly through Wikidata); each links to the original review when we can find it online, and to that Wikipedia entry when we can’t. When an outlet reviewed an album twice, years apart (often for a reissue), both scores count, each labeled with its year.
A-Side marks the critics’ top tier. An album earns it automatically, from its numbers alone: a Breakdown of 90 or higher, from at least 5 reviews, with at least 75% approval. Nobody hands it out and nobody can buy it; if new reviews pull an album below the line, it loses the badge.
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