We’ve been hearing about a new Cure album set for release this year tentatively titled 4:14 Scream, a sequel to 2008’s 4:13 Dream culled from the same studio sessions and originally intended as the back half of a double album. When that news broke, Tom noted that the band seemed to realize this new-old collection “will not end up as one of their classics, since they’re already making plans to play their actual classic music on tour” — specifically an upcoming trilogy tour performing 1984’s The Top, 1985’s The Head On The Door, and 1987’s Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. And Robert Smith’s comments to XFM this past weekend seemed to confirm a distinct lack of enthusiasm about the 4:14 project; he said the release of an album by a Cure lineup that no longer exists is “a bit of a sore spot,” he “couldn’t be bothered” to record the vocals until re-writing the original subpar lyrics, and the album would come out during “that summer ‘dead air’ period for albums.”

Not promising! But Smith has taken to the Cure’s website to clarify his remarks. In a lengthy blog post published this morning, Smith reaffirmed his enthusiasm about the unreleased material and offers a detailed explanation of how it came to be part of a separate release. Here’s his full statement:

AS CLEARLY AND SUCCINCTLY AS I CAN…

“Having said all that, I have no idea… I really don’t. I’m really bad at planning long-term stuff.”*

I HAVE LITTLE DESIRE TO BE DRAWN
AND LITTLE CONVICTION IT REALLY MATTERS THAT MUCH…
BUT ON THE BACK OF THE WEARY AND EVER MORE NEGATIVE INTERPRETATIONS OF MY SHORT POST SATURDAY RAH SHOW CHAT WITH XFM
I WILL TRY TO EXPLAIN A VERY SIMPLE CHAIN OF EVENTS AS CLEARLY AND SUCCINCTLY AS I CAN, GIVEN A NUMBER OF GENUINE CONSTRAINTS…

LIKE NOT WANTING TO NAME TOO MANY NAMES OR POINT TOO MANY FINGERS

IN 2007 THE CURE (ME, SIMON, JASON AND PORL THOMPSON) REHEARSED AND RECORDED 33 SONGS WITH THE INTENTION OF CREATING A DOUBLE CD ALBUM CONTAINING APPROXIMATELY 2 HOURS OF MUSIC:

13 SONGS ON EACH DISC, MOST WITH WORDS AND VOCALS, BUT A FEW WITH WORDS AND NO VOCALS (IE. ‘INSTRUMENTALS WITH WORDS’…!) – THE RUNNING ORDER WAS FLUID, AS I WAS CONSTANTLY REARRANGING THE ORDER IN WHICH THE 33 A4 ‘MASTER SHEETS’ WERE STUCK ON THE WALL OF THE CONTROL ROOM… CHOICE CHANGED DEPENDING ON THE PROGRESS OF THE RECORDING…

WE PLANNED TO RELEASE 4 OF THE ALBUM SONGS AS ‘SINGLES’, PLUS 4 ‘B-SIDES’…
LEAVING A ‘MARGIN OF ERROR’ (SHOULD WE NEED IT) OF 3 SONGS…

HOWEVER, TOWARDS THE END OF THE PROJECT, I RAN OUT OF THE ENERGY AND CONVICTION I NEEDED TO RESIST A GROWING COMMERCIAL (AND TEMPORAL) PRESSURE FROM INDIVIDUALS AND RELEASE STRUCTURES I WAS OBLIGED TO WORK WITH, AND (TO MY DISCREDIT?!!) ABANDONED THE DOUBLE ALBUM/INSTRUMENTALS PLAN…

INSTEAD I COMPILED ‘4:13 DREAM’ (13 SONGS WITH WORDS AND VOCALS), AND IT WAS THIS SINGLE CD ALBUM, ALONG WITH THE 4 OTHER ‘B-SIDE’ SONGS ACCOMPANYING THE 4 (REMIXED) SINGLES, THAT WAS RELEASED IN 2008

COMPILING A SINGLE CD ALBUM REQUIRED A DIFFERENT APPROACH (FOR ONE THING THERE WAS NO LONGER THE TIME TO ‘SPREAD OUT’ AND CONNECT THE DIFFERENT MOODS AS I HAD ORIGINALLY INTENDED… )
AND AS A CONSEQUENCE A NUMBER OF (MY FAVOURITE!) SLOWER SONGS AND INSTRUMENTAL PIECES WERE LEFT UNFINISHED AND UNRELEASED

“AS CLEARLY AND SUCCINCTLY AS I CAN”: I THINK ‘4:13 DREAM’ IS AN EXCELLENT CURE ALBUM, AND ALL THE B-SIDES ARE FAB… BUT THE CULMINATION OF THE PROJECT WASNT QUITE WHAT IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN, AS 16 OF THE ORIGINAL 33 SONGS WERE ‘LEFT ON THE SHELF’…

IN 2009 PORL THOMPSON LEFT THE BAND
AND THAT VERSION OF THE CURE WAS OVER
FOR GOOD
AND LIFE CARRIED ON…
IN 2010 THE CURE HAD ‘A YEAR AWAY’
IN 2011 ROGER O’DONNELL REJOINED THE BAND AND THE CURE PLAYED AROUND THE WORLD…
AND ENOUGH TIME HAD PASSED…
AND I GOT THE URGE TO REVISIT OUR ‘LIVE IN PARIS 2008′ FILM TO SEE HOW FAR WE HAD GOT WITH IT…
AND FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 3 YEARS LISTENED TO THE UNRELEASED ‘4:13 DREAM’ SESSION SONGS…
AND I FOUND I STILL LIKED THEM… ALBEIT I WASN’T SURE ABOUT SOME OF THE LYRICS…

…SO I STARTED WRITING NEW WORDS FOR THE INSTRUMENTAL SONGS
AND I STARTED SINGING THEM
AND RESINGING OTHERS
AND I BEGAN THINKING OF WAYS TO FINISH OFF THE PROJECT TO MY SATISFACTION

AND LIFE CARRIED ON…

IN 2012 REEVES GABRELS JOINED THE BAND AND THE CURE PLAYED AROUND THE WORLD…
AND (MAINLY BECAUSE OF THIS ‘PLAYING AROUND THE WORLD’ AND ‘LIFE CARRYING ON’ STUFF) OTHER UNFINISHED PROJECTS STARTED MOUNTING UP…
IN 2013 THE CURE CONTINUED PLAYING SHOWS AROUND THE WORLD…
AND THE PERFORMANCES GOT BETTER AND BETTER…
AND LIFE…

IN 2014 THE CURE CONTINUE(D) PLAYING SHOWS AROUND THE WORLD…

AND MY PLAN THIS SUNNY SPRING MONDAY AT THE END OF MARCH IS TO GET TO THE POINT IN THE NEXT MONTH OR THREE WHERE WE CAN RELEASE:

1)
A LTD EDITION ‘4:26 DREAM’ DOUBLE CD ALBUM OF 26 SONGS (ALL REMIXED) – IE. ‘THE ORIGINAL 4:13 DREAM SESSIONS CONCEPT ALBUM’ (INCLUDING THE ‘INSTRUMENTALS WITH WORDS’) – OF WHICH 10 TRACKS OR MORE WILL BE PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED…

2)
A LTD EDITION ‘4:14 SCREAM’ SINGLE CD ALBUM OF 14 PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED SONGS – ALBEIT SOME OF THEM MAY ALSO BE ON ‘4:26 DREAM’… BUT THESE ‘4:14 SCREAM’ VERSIONS WILL ALL HAVE WORDS AND VOCALS…

“AS CLEARLY AND SUCCINCTLY AS I CAN”?!!:
ITS MAYBE STILL A BIT TRICKY TO EXPLAIN WITHOUT TITLES AND LYRICS AND…
MUSIC!!!
BUT…
OF THE ORIGINAL 33 SONGS RECORDED IN 2008
32 WILL GET RELEASED
(THERE’S ALWAYS ONE…!)
AND I WILL BE OVERCOME WITH AN IRRESISTIBLE URGE** TO FINISH SOME (ALL?!!) OF THE OTHER OUTSTANDING CURE PROJECTS
LIKE ‘LIVE IN PARIS 2008′ AND ‘REFLECTIONS 2011′ AND ‘SUMMERCURE 2012′ AND ‘LATAM 2013′ (AND ‘RAH TCT 2014’?!!)

…AND CREATE SOME NEW NEW MUSIC WITH THIS CURRENT CURE LINEUP…

“Down, down, deeper and down… “
HA!
AND ONWARDS
RSX

PS
“AS CLEARLY AND SUCCINCTLY AS I CAN”:
I STILL PREFER PHYSICAL RELEASES TO VIRTUAL… gulp!

PPS
*”Having said all that, I have no idea… I really don’t. I’m really bad at planning long-term stuff.” – ME, AT THE WEEKEND…
**”TRUE ART IS CHARACTERISED BY AN IRRESISTIBLE URGE IN THE CREATIVE ARTIST”… EINSTEIN, SOMETIME EARLIER!!!

tl;dr Smith was bummed that he didn’t get to release the project as a double album, he’s hoping to release the double album after all in addition to a separate limited edition 4:14 Scream release, and after many hours of hard work he’s gotten the unreleased material to a point where he’s satisfied with it. As any musician tends to be, he’s especially stoked about getting on to new music with his current band.

As you can see, as already proven by Bloodflowers, “succinct” is not Smith’s specialty.