New Release of the Week: The Cure - Songs of A Live World

The Cure dropped one of the biggest studio albums of the year last year, marking a triumphant return after more than a decade away.

‘Songs of a Lost World’ was the band’s first album in 16 years, with its release delighting fans and the music press alike.

On the day of release, The Cure performed the album in full at London’s Troxy venue, with it also being broadcast on TV. It’s this live performance which makes up ‘Songs of a Live World’.

All this helped propel The Cure to their first number one album in the UK since 1992’s ‘Wish’.

For what it’s worth, it was also the biggest seller at Sound Records in 2024, and continues to fly out the door whenever we get copies back in.

Sound Pick: Credence Clearwater Revival - Reissues of All Seven Studio Albums

Between July 1968 and July 1970, Creedence Clearwater Revival produced one of the most remarkable runs of albums in rock history.

In that short time, they put out their self-titled debut, Bayou Country, Green River, Willie and the Poor Boys, and Cosmo’s Factory - each one a stone-cold classic.

Fifteen singles from those albums also charted in the US, with those songs becoming an indelible soundtrack to that turbulent era in the States (try and find a Vietnam film without a CCR song in it, for example).

Runs of this intensity are invariably unsustainable, though, and that certainly proved to be the case for Creedence.

By December 1970, Pendulum thought they were running out of steam, while 1972’s Mardi Gras was a sad end for a band which had descended into rancour. The magic of the first five records is hard to beat, though.