NEW YORK (AP) — Goths, rejoice: At long last, The Cure has released new music.
“Alone,” their first new song in 16 years, premiered on Mary Anne Hobbs’ BBC 6 Music radio show Thursday morning.
The English band also announced a new album, “Songs of A Lost World,” to be released on Nov. 1.
The Cure teased new music on social media leading up to its release, sharing a snippet of the song that featured their trademark layered guitars, metallic percussion and sparkling synths. Near the end, singer Robert Smith jumped in with the gloomy lyrics, “This is the end of every song that we sing."
“It’s the track that unlocked the record; as soon as we had that piece of music recorded I knew it was the opening song, and I felt the whole album come into focus," Smith said in a press release. "I had been struggling to find the right opening line for the right opening song for a while, working with the simple idea of ‘being alone’, always in the back of my mind this nagging feeling that I already knew what the opening line should be… as soon as we finished recording I remembered the poem ‘Dregs’ by the English poet Ernest Dowson… and that was the moment when I knew the song — and the album — were real.”
The Cure has toured in the years since their last album, 2008’s “4:13 Dream,” but has yet to release a new album. In 2019, Smith told Rolling Stone the band had recorded 19 tracks, ranging from 10-12 minutes long, and wanted to release a new album in Halloween of that year. It did not happen.
But now, The Cure joins a long list of 2024 band reunions, which so far includes everyone from Britpop icons Oasis, who ended a 15-year hiatus and, presumably, the long-held feud between brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher, to Linkin Park — now with a new singer, Dead Sara's Emily Armstrong — their first performances since the 2017 death of lead singer Chester Bennington.
This cover image released by Fiction/Capitol Records shows "Songs of a Lost World" by The Cure. (Fiction/Capitol Records via AP)
FILE - The Cure performs at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans on Wednesday, May 10, 2023. (Brett Duke/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate via AP, File)
DABROWKA, Poland (AP) — Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk traveled Saturday to his country's border with the Russian region of Kaliningrad to inspect progress in the construction of military fortifications along the eastern frontier, calling it "an investment in peace."
Tusk’s visit comes a month before Poland is to take over the rotating presidency of the 27-member European Union. Polish officials say their priority is to urge Europeans to beef up defenses at a time of Russian aggression and with change coming soon in Washington. Some European leaders are concerned that the incoming administration of Donald Trump might be less committed to Europe’s defense.
Poland's government and army began building the system dubbed East Shield this year. It will eventually include approximately 800 kilometers (500 miles) along the Polish borders with Russia and Belarus, at a time when Western officials accuse Russia of waging hybrid attacks against the West that include sabotage, the weaponization of migration, disinformation and other hostile measures.
“The better the Polish border is guarded, the more difficult it is to access for those with bad intentions,” Tusk said at a news conference near the village of Dabrowka as he stood in front of concrete anti-tank barriers.
Poland has been at the mercy of aggressive neighbors over the past centuries and has become a leading European voice for security at a time when France and Germany are weakened by internal political problems. Poland aims to spend 4.7% of its gross domestic product on defense next year, making it one of NATO's leaders in defense spending.
Tusk's government estimates that the strategic military project will cost at least 10 billion zlotys ($2.5 billion). Poland’s borders with Russia, Belarus — as well as Ukraine — are the easternmost external borders of both the European Union and NATO.
Tusk said he expected the East Shield to eventually be expanded to protect the small Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
“Everything we are doing here — and we will also be doing this on the border with Belarus and Ukraine — is to deter and discourage a potential aggressor, which is why it is truly an investment in peace," Tusk said. “We will spend billions of zlotys on this, but right now the whole of Europe is observing these investments and our actions with great satisfaction and will support them if necessary.”
He said he wants Poles "to feel safer along the entire length of the eastern border.” Tusk also said the fortifications would include Poland's border with Ukraine, a close ally, but did not elaborate.
Along the frontier, anti-tank barriers known as “hedgehogs” will be integrated with natural barriers like ditches. Tusk said parts of the project are not visible to the naked eye, but it is nonetheless the largest project of its nature in Europe since the end of World War II.
The plans also include the construction of appropriate threat reconnaissance and detection systems, forward bases, logistics hubs, warehouses and the deployment of anti-drone systems, the state news agency PAP reported.
Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk, left, and Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson sign an agreement during Thursday's summit at Harpsund in Flen, Sweden, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024. (Henrik Montgomery/TT News Agency via AP)
