Robert Smith is no stranger to touring the world and casually giving the fans epic concerts.

That's why when he hints at the end of The Cure through interviews and song titles, it makes you wonder - is he just being as dramatic as his distinctive voice? Does he know something we don't about his health or future? Or is he just pulling that same old trick Quentin Tarantino pulled when he said he wanted to retire after ten films.

Last month the singer told The Independent he's been doing the math.

“I'm 70 in 2029,” Smith said, “and that’s the 50th anniversary of the first Cure album [1979’s Three Imaginary Boys], and that’s it. That really is it – if I make it that far – that’s it.”

But before you go getting all emo on us, this is one of the godfathers of Goth. And also one of the romantically pouting poets.

In the same breath he also said this:

“In the intervening time I’d like us to include playing concerts as part of the overall plan of what we’re gonna do. Because I’ve loved it, the last 10 years of playing shows have been the best 10 years of being in the band… it pisses all over the other 30-odd years, it’s been great.”

That confidence comes through in an unusual way on their new album Songs of a Lost World. The record is their first in sixteen years and yet there's no obvious pop hits.

It's a beautiful, gloomy, yet strangely hopeful record about all the usual Cure things: love and death. But even in the most echoey corner of darkness there's old Robert with that one-of-a-kind voice singing about the most intense and serious love and you believe it.

But none of these are radio-friendly unit shifters. This is The Cure of legend. The masters of the mope. Unfortunately, with curated playlists and Siri only giving you the hits, songs like "Alone," were there in Disintegration but Alexa would only feed us "Pictures of You."

Now they've got no choice. Here's eight long, slow, cinematic, reminders of mortality and majesty.

Seriously, the first two verses of "Alone" is poetry:

This is the end of every song that we sing
The fire burned out to ash and the stars grown dim with tears
Cold and afraid, the ghosts of all that we've been
We toast with bitter dregs, to our emptiness

And the birds falling out of our skies
And the words falling out of our minds
And here is to love, to all the love
Falling out of our lives
Hopes and dreams are gone
The end of every song

The show at the Troxy on Friday (11/1) was a three-hour marathon just two days after playing for several hours in two performances for the BBC.

It began with performing the entirety of the new album, which meant a trio of songs finally got their live debut: "Warsong," "Drone:Nodrone," and "All I Ever Am."

Then they rewarded the audience with a dozen of hits and sorta-deep cuts.

Tunes like "Lovesong," "In Between Days" and "Just Like Heaven."

Then, to honor the 45th anniversary of the goth classic Seventeen Seconds, they played five tracks in a mini set.

It included "Secrets" which hasn't been heard live since November 21, 2011, at the Royal Albert Hall, which, according to Cure Gig Stats, was the only other time it had been performed in London. Perhaps the main reason "Secrets" was even played then was it was their Reflections Tour where they played their first three albums in their entirety.

The Cure wrapped it up with a six song encore of other hits from "Why Can't I Be You" to "Boys Don't Cry."

That last song is a clever bookend to the final song of the new album, "Endsong," because if there ever sounded like a boy (who is now a man) crying, it's that one:

And I'm outside in the dark staring at the blood red moon
Remembering the hopes and dreams I had and all I had to do
And wondering what became of that boy and the world he called his own
I'm outside in the dark wondering how I got so old

It's all gone, it's all gone
Nothing left of all I loved
It all feels wrong
It's all gone, it's all gone, it's all gone
No hopes, no dreams, no world
No, I don't belong
I don't belong here anymore

The Cure have no shows announced yet for this forthcoming tour.

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