Robert Smith curates Mixes Of A Lost World, a radical rework of the Cure’s Songs Of A Lost World featuring 24 remixers including Four Tet, Chino Moreno, and Mogwai. Proceeds benefit War Child UK.
Robert Smith has always walked the line between shadow and shimmer, but Mixes Of A Lost World pushes the Cure’s palette into altogether new territory. Conceived and compiled by Smith himself, this expansive new remix collection reimagines every track from the band’s acclaimed 2024 comeback album Songs Of A Lost World, and ropes in a cast as eclectic as the Cure’s four-decade career would demand; Four Tet, Paul Oakenfold, Orbital, Trentemøller, Mogwai, The Twilight Sad, Chino Moreno and many more.
It began, in typical Cure fashion, with an unexpected twist of fate. “Just after Christmas I was sent a couple of unsolicited remixes... and I really loved them,” says Smith, and it soon became a full-blown reworking. He handed over Songs Of A Lost World to 24 artists who tore it apart and rebuilt it from their own corners of experimentation. The result? A delirious, genre-hopping spin through the album’s eight original tracks that does more than simply remix them, it reframes them.
There’s something deeply Cure about this - taking the somber gravity of their late-period return and letting it bloom into something unrecognizable yet strangely faithful. Oakenfold injects a pulse, Four Tet stretches atmosphere into tension, and 65daysofstatic throw sparks in all directions. Even Chino Moreno of Deftones offers his own spectral twist. All royalties from Mixes Of A Lost World will go to War Child UK, making this a release with both artistic reach and humanitarian weight.
The deluxe 3CD edition arrives in an 8-panel digisleeve and includes a foldout poster, a visual remix courtesy of long-time collaborator Andy Vella, who reworked the original artwork while keeping Janez Pirnat’s haunting 1975 sculpture Bagatelle as its totemic centerpiece.
It’s a rare thing when a remix album feels like an event. Rarer still when it opens the door to a band’s legacy while simultaneously challenging it. But Mixes of a Lost World does just that, an alternate dimension of Songs Of A Lost World, born of curiosity, collaboration, and, as ever, the unmistakable gravity of Smith’s vision.