The Cure<\/a> might be one of the most legendary bands in the history of music, but the reason they earned their crown in the first place was their complete balance in their artistic expression.<\/p>\nEven today, with releases like Songs of a Lost World, you can tell that Robert Smith writes for both himself and his listeners, an approach that makes his stories and worlds feel tight and nuanced and only for those who truly understand what it\u2019s all about. While writing, he\u2019s often wondering how it\u2019s going to land and hopes that those who receive it on the other end will actually enjoy what they\u2019re listening to. <\/p>\n
As he explained following the release of Lost World, \u201cIt\u2019s a strange thing \u2013 it\u2019s always a weird moment when suddenly people start listening to what you\u2019ve been doing. Because you can\u2019t help but [think], why bother unless you want people to like it? It\u2019s a faux artistry when you think I\u2019m just doing it for myself, you\u2019re really not.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is a point of contention in today\u2019s musical landscape, especially when it comes to mainstream spaces. Audiences nowadays are no doubt more privy to those who make music solely to gain sales and charting positions, and those who make it to express themselves, with some arguing that the only real art comes from those who are completely selfish and create music solely for themselves.<\/p>\n
However, when it comes to Smith, it\u2019s almost impossible to separate the two, with even the most innovative visionaries standing in the studio from time to time and wondering what people are going to think once they\u2019ve been exposed to it. Perhaps this is one of the biggest reasons for The Cure\u2019s success \u2013 that there\u2019s always an anchor to cultural impact and relevance, no matter how personal and intimate Smith\u2019s lyricisms are.<\/p>\n
This ability to transform personal musings into melancholic art came from a variety of sources in the beginning, swirling in a concoction of everything that Smith was listening to growing up and in the band\u2019s early days, when The Cure were shaping up to be one of the most exciting, gothic-leaning rock bands in the arena. <\/p>\n
One hero that Smith credits with shaping some of his more familiar sonic facets is Nick Drake, specifically his 1969 album Five Leaves Left, which he first heard when he was ten years old. Over time, his endearment grew deeper, proving the opposite sense of gratification as explosive players like Jimi Hendrix because Drake was more \u201cquiet and withdrawn\u201d with a heartfelt writing style that informed much of Smith\u2019s own lyrical approach.<\/p>\n
Another thing that drew Smith to his artistry was that \u201che wasn\u2019t worried about what people thought of him\u201d \u2013 a quality he admired despite his later qualms with artistic pandering \u2013 and didn\u2019t care so much about being famous. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think also that because he had an untimely death like Jimi Hendrix,\u00a0 he was never able to compromise his early work,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a morbid romanticism, but there is something attractive about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mainly, it was Drake\u2019s overwhelming simplicity<\/a> that stunned Smith to the point that it became a lesson in complexity instead. When he first heard \u2018Time Has Told Me\u2019, for instance, there was a self-assuredness that floored him, because it was so direct and yet \u201cincredibly difficult, impossible to replicate\u201d: all signs of a true master storyteller.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy) Wed 4 March 2026 20:15, UK The Cure might be one of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,27154,27155,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-458513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-robert-smith","tag-the-cure","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Robert](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Robert-Smith-Jimi-Hendrix-Split-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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