The Cure have continued to tease their fans will live previews of their upcoming 14th album, performing a new song called ‘A Fragile Thing’ in Assago, Italy.
The legendary goth-rockers played at the Mediolanum Forum di Assago last night (November 4), delivering a set of 27 songs that spanned seven of their 13 studio albums (as well as a handful of their standalone releases).
‘A Fragile Thing’ arrived halfway through the set, sandwiched between the four other songs from their next album – revealed in March to be titled ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ – that have been premiered across The Cure’s ongoing UK and European tour.
At the first show of the tour – which took place in Latvia on Thursday October 6 – the band debuted ‘Alone’ and ‘Endsong’, marking their first new material since 2008’s ‘4:13 Dream’ album. ‘And Nothing Is Forever’ was then debuted in Sweden, before Polish fans were introduced to ‘I Can Never Say Goodbye’ some three weeks ago.
‘A Fragile Thing’ is a fittingly melancholic tune, with Robert Smith singing wistfully over a melody of droning piano chords and a steady beat: “‘There’s nothing you can do to change it back,’ she said / ‘Nothing you can do but sing’ / This love is a fragile thing / This love is my everything.”
Have a look at some crowd-shot footage of the moment below, then see the full setlist from last night’s show (via setlist.fm)
1. ‘Alone’
2. ‘Pictures Of You’
3. ‘A Night Like This’
4. ‘Lovesong’
5. ‘And Nothing Is Forever’
6. ‘Cold’
7. ‘Burn’
8. ‘At Night’
9. ‘Charlotte Sometimes’
10. ‘Push’
11. ‘Play For Today’
12. ‘A Forest’
13. ‘A Fragile Thing’ (live debut)
14. ‘Shake Dog Shake’
15. ‘From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea’
16. ‘Endsong’
17. ‘I Can Never Say Goodbye’
18. ‘The Figurehead’
19. ‘Faith’
20. ‘Disintegration’
21. ‘Lullaby’
22. ‘The Walk’
23. ‘Friday I’m In Love’
24. ‘Close To Me’
25. ‘In Between Days’
26. ‘Just Like Heaven’
27. ‘Boys Don’t Cry’
The Cure’s UK and European tour will continue in Geneva, Switzerland tomorrow (November 6), with a further 25 dates on the itinerary. They’ll wrap up with a trio of back-to-back shows in Wembley, performing at the OVO Arena across December 11-13. See more details here, and find tickets to the remaining shows here.
The band are yet to formally announce ‘Songs Of A Lost World’, but Smith told NME back in May that it was “almost finished”. He did, however, say at the time that it would be released before The Cure began their current tour.
Meanwhile, the band recently reissued their classic 1992 album ‘Wish’, with the 30th anniversary edition sporting 24 previously unreleased tracks. In August, too, keyboardist Roger O’Donnell announced that he’s working on his first film score.