The Cure’s latest offering, ‘Mixes of a Lost World’, is an ambitious 24-track accompaniment to their acclaimed 2024 album ‘Songs from a Lost World’. With profits going to UK educational NGO War Child, the record assembles a diverse roster of remixes from collaborators including Ibiza trailblazer Paul Oakenfold and Norwegian techno mainstay Mental Overdrive to electronica luminaries such as Four Tet and self-professed superfan Trentemøller.
Remix albums often walk a fine line between inventive reinterpretation and uneven execution and this one is no exception. At its best, it soars: Orbital’s thunderous version of Endsong transforms the melancholic original into a towering electro anthem, while Four Tet’s reworking of Alone is a standout, pairing glitchy, off-kilter beats with resonant gongs and Robert Smith’s haunting vocals. The result is both meditative and transportive.
The quality of that track may be a giveaway to the challenges inherent to these undertakings.
The Four Tet remix is elegant, effortless, even. It feels as though the composer has not spent a lot of time on it, but it’s come out great anyway.
This is balanced by Trentemøller’s version of And Nothing is Forever, which feels slightly overworked and a bit dated, like an early ‘00s dark sci-fi movie soundtrack.
The original ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ basically ran to just eight tracks. Stretching its source material across two dozen remixes invites inevitable repetition. While The Cure have long thrived on a dreamy, meandering aesthetic — a kind of artful dishevelment — that signature looseness starts to drag over such an extended runtime.
Still, the compilation isn’t without charm. When it works, it offers a fascinating lens through which to view The Cure’s gothic romanticism refracted again through electronic experimentation. As a benefit project outside the band’s core discography, ‘Mixes of a Lost World’ feels less like a definitive statement and more like a generous detour — one driven by goodwill, not perfectionism.
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