The Cure
4:13 dream

Firstly, every Cure album has its own perspective and, in its simple yet particular architecture, it reflects a "state of mind". Therefore, I immediately preface by saying that this latest work is a worthy chapter of a discography spanning 31 years that wants to keep going, even when Dark is no longer in vogue and New Wave is dead.

Since the last "The Cure", the band, stripping away that aggressive sound appeal, further enhances the freshness of sounds and rhythm, revisiting some essential rules of its past, doing so in its typical and well-packaged pop-rock style. No particular experiment, nor monothematic concepts, but also no digression: Robert Smith wrote the songs relying on the return of his brother-in-law, Porl Thompson, to the guitars and the almost total absence of keyboards, given the dismissal of keyboardist Roger O'Donnell.

The variety of the tracklist is remarkable and so is the tribute the band pays to its past production: it begins with "Underneath the Stars" which partly recalls the atmospheres of "Pictures of You" with added driving rhythm in the style of "The Kiss"; then track 3 features "The Reasons Why" which starts with a bass reminiscent of New Order, and right after, "Freakshow" which somewhat deflates, linking to 1990's "Never Enough"; the splendid track 5 is "Sirens Song" where you can sense the flavor of ballads from "Wild Mood Swings" ("Jupiter Crash" foremost); at track 8 there's "Switch" which, with its drum and guitar rhythm, recalls the sound of "Wish", especially that of the song "From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea"; track 11, "Sleep When I'm Dead", takes us back to 1987 and the atmospheres of "Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me" and the same goes for the concluding "It's Over".

In conclusion, "4:13 Dream" marks the splendid return of Porl Thompson's guitars, and is a very good album, not a "concept album" like "Seventeen Seconds", "Faith", "Pornography," "Disintegration" or "Bloodflowers" (which in my opinion are unbeatable), yet it boasts a less symphonic but very well-packaged and played sound, in line with the more airy and cheerful moments of a historic and utterly unique band like the Cure, which, I remind you, has reached its 13th album... how time flies!!