The Cure’s Songs of a Lost World was my favorite album of 2024, so hearing it remixed by 24 different artists gave me pause. It’s not the first time Robert Smith has loosened his notoriously tight grip to allow artists to remix his work. With Mixes of Lost World (Fiction Records), it’s obvious Smith was in control of curating who he trusted with these songs. There are the obvious culprits who you almost expect having their hand in a re-mix album like Paul Oakenfold and Oribital, then he handed it over to bands in his close circle like tour-mates The Twilight Sad and Mogwai to not just prep the songs for the dance floor but applied their instruments into their reworkings which were both very true to the creative spirt of the band.
The bulk of the more electronic-based exclusions were not just replacing the drum tracks with a drum loop of their choosing, as Oakenfold’s re-mix of “I Can Never Say Goodbye” is a cinematic coloring of the song, as the piano melody and Smith’s vocal remain the heartbeat of this dramatic symphonic take. Though with Mental Overdrive is the moniker used by a long-running Norwegian techno DJ, he inserted a euro-techno beat that keeps the song moving in a manner that is much more dancey, almost like old-school techno, which takes on a bit of a drone.
You gotta hand it to Smith, he makes sure almost every adjacent sub-genre of what the band does is represented here, from slow-burning Kraut Rock to shoegazing post-Rock. Most people who have delved into The Cure’s music deeper than just the radio hits might think of it as drug music, and some of the trippier tones artists such as Orbital bring require a higher dose of chemical to appreciate the full effect. This would certainly aid the jarring contrast Mogwait brings to “Endsong” as they take the song to a darker, more obtuse place. They prefer the sound of their own guitars, yet retain the memories of the original guitar melodies that haunt the song. Robert Smith has called them his favorite band before, so it makes sense that they would capture his intent while going in a new direction.
Bournemouth-based DJ Daniel Avery might not have gotten as sonic as expected on “Drone No Drone with the laid-back but still dance-minded beat under it. This allows the vocals to work with the same grooving cadence as the original while owing little to the original arrangement, but keeping it dark enough for goth fans. JoyCut brings a more post-industrial dynamic to their version of this song. Next to Mogwai, it’s the second most experimental reworking, but also stays true to the Cure, and marginally more atmospheric. Less bassline-supported backbone and more atmosphere.
One of this album’s best re-workings comes from Trentmoller. This is due in large part to the Danish musician’s greater understanding of dark music. He shifts the mood into something that flirts with both witch house and industrial, while staying true to the song. Deftones’ vocalist Chino Moreno kept his mouth shut when it came to approaching “Warsong,” and just mixed Smith’s vocals in a similar manner that he would approach his own. Overall, the varied artists gathered here make this less about what they can bring to the song and more about respecting the influence Smith and friends have already had on them.
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9 / 10
WIL CIFER
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