# Alone (The Cure song)
**Alone** is a 2024 song by the English rock band [The Cure](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-cure), released on 26 September 2024 as the band's first new music in 16 years and the opening track and lead single of their 14th studio album, *Songs of a Lost World*, which followed on 1 November 2024.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/sep/23/the-cure-announce-first-new-song-in-16-years-alone) • [2](https://apnews.com/article/a76bedce7210b520550a93f262c5d2e7) Frontman Robert Smith described it as "the track that unlocked the record."[3](https://www.loudersound.com/news/the-cure-songs-of-a-lost-world-new-single-alone)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Artist | The Cure |
| Released | 26 September 2024[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/sep/23/the-cure-announce-first-new-song-in-16-years-alone) |
| Album | *Songs of a Lost World*, opening track and lead single, album released 1 November 2024[2](https://apnews.com/article/a76bedce7210b520550a93f262c5d2e7) |
| Length | Nearly seven minutes, with over three minutes of instrumental introduction before vocals[4](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/sep/26/the-cure-alone-review) |
| Lyric source | Based on "Dregs," a poem by the English poet Ernest Dowson[3](https://www.loudersound.com/news/the-cure-songs-of-a-lost-world-new-single-alone) |
| First performance | Debuted on tour in 2022 and opened every concert on the 2022–2023 Shows of a Lost World tour[5](https://visions-of-sound.live/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/VisionOfSound_Magazin_2024_02_ePaper_English.pdf) |
| Grammy Award | Won Best Alternative Music Performance at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards (2026)[6](https://www.grammy.com/artists/cure/10575/) |
## Background and release
The Cure's previous album, *4:13 Dream*, had been released in 2008.[2](https://apnews.com/article/a76bedce7210b520550a93f262c5d2e7) Smith told *Rolling Stone* in 2019 that the band had recorded 19 songs in sessions that year, most running 10 to 12 minutes.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/sep/23/the-cure-announce-first-new-song-in-16-years-alone) He later said the band recorded three albums' worth of material in 2019.[7](https://www.musicradar.com/artists/singles-albums/shes-banging-out-songs-saying-what-do-you-think-of-this-and-im-its-great-im-not-really-sure-but-it-took-me-16-years-to-do-the-last-album-robert-smith-cant-match-with-olivia-rodrigos-work-rate-but-teases-dismal-and-poppy-cure-albums) The album's title and release date were confirmed in September 2024, with cryptic postcards to fans and a poster outside The Railway pub in Crawley, West Sussex, where the band played its first show in 1978.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/sep/23/the-cure-announce-first-new-song-in-16-years-alone)
Before its official release, five of the album's songs, including "Alone," had been performed live in 2022 and 2023 during the band's international tour, where "Alone" opened every concert.[5](https://visions-of-sound.live/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/VisionOfSound_Magazin_2024_02_ePaper_English.pdf) The song premiered on Mary Anne Hobbs' BBC Radio 6 Music show on the morning of 26 September 2024, alongside the album announcement.[2](https://apnews.com/article/a76bedce7210b520550a93f262c5d2e7)
**Smith's description.** In the press release accompanying the single, Smith said: "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." He added that he had struggled to find the right opening line until he remembered Dowson's poem "Dregs": "that was the moment when I knew the song – and the album – were real."[3](https://www.loudersound.com/news/the-cure-songs-of-a-lost-world-new-single-alone)
## Composition and lyrics
"Alone" runs to nearly seven minutes, and more than half of that time is consumed by a lengthy instrumental introduction.[4](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/sep/26/the-cure-alone-review) The structure recalled "Plainsong," the opener of the band's 1989 album *Disintegration*, and critics also compared its austere drums to those underpinning "Cold" from the band's 1982 album *[Pornography](https://www.edgepedia.org/pornography-album)*.[4](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/sep/26/the-cure-alone-review) The review noted [Simon Gallup](https://www.edgepedia.org/simon-gallup)'s bass decorating rather than driving the song, with distorted retorts, a glacial synth, and a rhythm track without hi-hats.[4](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/sep/26/the-cure-alone-review) A review in *The Irish Times* described the sound as a "big wash of sound," a phrase Smith himself had used in 2019 about the album.[8](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/2024/09/26/alone-the-cures-first-new-song-in-16-years-is-a-huge-aching-sigh-of-darkness-that-brings-great-comfort/)
The opening verses run:
> "This is the end
> Of every song that we sing
> The fire burned out to ash
> And the stars
> Grown dim with tears
> Cold and afraid
> The ghosts of all that we've been
> We toast with bitter dregs
> To our emptiness"[3](https://www.loudersound.com/news/the-cure-songs-of-a-lost-world-new-single-alone)
The lyrics draw on Dowson's poem "Dregs," written shortly before the poet's death and filled with ghosts, hopelessness, and morbidity.[4](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/sep/26/the-cure-alone-review) The *Guardian* reviewer Alexis Petridis noted that Smith added mortality-themed imagery of his own devising, including birds falling from the sky and broken voices calling home.[4](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/sep/26/the-cure-alone-review) Themes of loss, isolation, impermanence, and mortality run through the album, and "Alone" shares the first and last songs' conversation about endings: the closing track "Endsong" echoes the phrase "left alone with nothing, the end of every song."[9](https://apnews.com/article/5c94952a91e7bbde75d580ae8f4e0c27)
**Personnel and production.** The album was written and arranged by [Robert Smith](https://www.edgepedia.org/robert-smith-musician) and produced and mixed by Smith and Paul Corkett.[10](https://www.universalmusic.it/popular-music/album/alone_37563221653/) The performing lineup credited on the recording comprised Smith (vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards), Simon Gallup (bass), Jason Cooper (drums and percussion), Roger O'Donnell (keyboards), and [Reeves Gabrels](https://www.edgepedia.org/reeves-gabrels) (guitar).[10](https://www.universalmusic.it/popular-music/album/alone_37563221653/)
## Reception
Critics received the single warmly. *The Irish Times* awarded it four stars and called it a "huge aching sigh of darkness that brings great comfort."[8](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/2024/09/26/alone-the-cures-first-new-song-in-16-years-is-a-huge-aching-sigh-of-darkness-that-brings-great-comfort/) The *Guardian* review by Alexis Petridis described it as "majestically wreathed in misery and despair" and framed it as a signal that the new album would belong to the darker end of the band's catalog rather than its pop end.[4](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/sep/26/the-cure-alone-review) Pitchfork's album review singled out Smith's couplet "And the birds, falling out of our skies / And the words, falling out of our minds" as one of his best, a "marvel of economy and craft."[11](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/the-cure-songs-of-a-lost-world/) Reviews of the album often compared "Alone" to the band's earlier openers, with The Independent describing it as marrying "warping nu-shoegaze clatter to crackling antique strings."[12](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/music/features/the-cure-robert-smith-tour-songs-b2637488.html)
**Commercial context.** *Songs of a Lost World* became The Cure's first UK number-one album since 1992.[13](https://www.universalmusic.ca/2024/12/13/the-cure-songs-of-a-live-world-troxy-london-mmxxiv-out-now/) On the album's release night, 1 November 2024, The Cure performed it in full for the first and only time at London's Troxy in front of 3,000 fans, a concert recorded for the later live release *Songs of a Live World: Troxy London MMXXIV*, whose royalties went to the charity War Child.[14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA1lIQWU-EI)
**Recognition.** At the 68th Annual Grammy Awards in 2026, "Alone" won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Performance, beating nominated tracks by [Bon Iver](https://www.edgepedia.org/bon-iver), Turnstile, Wet Leg, and [Hayley Williams](https://www.edgepedia.org/hayley-williams).[6](https://www.grammy.com/artists/cure/10575/) The same ceremony saw *Songs of a Lost World* win Best Alternative Music Album, the band's first Grammy win.[6](https://www.grammy.com/artists/cure/10575/)
## References
1. [The Cure announce first new song in 16 years, Alone – The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/sep/23/the-cure-announce-first-new-song-in-16-years-alone)
2. [The Cure announces a new album and releases its first new song in 16 years, 'Alone' – AP News](https://apnews.com/article/a76bedce7210b520550a93f262c5d2e7)
3. ["It's the track that unlocked the record." The Cure introduce their long-awaited new album Songs Of A Lost World with gorgeous, haunting new single Alone – Louder](https://www.loudersound.com/news/the-cure-songs-of-a-lost-world-new-single-alone)
4. [The Cure: Alone review – majestically wreathed in misery and despair – The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/sep/26/the-cure-alone-review)
5. [Songs of a Lost World magazine feature – Vision of Sound](https://visions-of-sound.live/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/VisionOfSound_Magazin_2024_02_ePaper_English.pdf)
6. [Cure Grammy Awards and Nominations – Grammy.com](https://www.grammy.com/artists/cure/10575/)
7. [Robert Smith teases 'dismal' and 'poppy' Cure albums – MusicRadar](https://www.musicradar.com/artists/singles-albums/shes-banging-out-songs-saying-what-do-you-think-of-this-and-im-its-great-im-not-really-sure-but-it-took-me-16-years-to-do-the-last-album-robert-smith-cant-match-with-olivia-rodrigos-work-rate-but-teases-dismal-and-poppy-cure-albums)
8. [Alone, The Cure's first new song in 16 years, is a huge aching sigh of darkness – The Irish Times](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/2024/09/26/alone-the-cures-first-new-song-in-16-years-is-a-huge-aching-sigh-of-darkness-that-brings-great-comfort/)
9. [Music Review: The Cure return after a long break to look at mortality – AP News](https://apnews.com/article/5c94952a91e7bbde75d580ae8f4e0c27)
10. [Alone – Universal Music Italia](https://www.universalmusic.it/popular-music/album/alone_37563221653/)
11. [The Cure: Songs of a Lost World Album Review – Pitchfork](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/the-cure-songs-of-a-lost-world/)
12. [False starts and false promises: The turbulent journey to The Cure's first album in 16 years – The Independent](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/music/features/the-cure-robert-smith-tour-songs-b2637488.html)
13. [The Cure – Songs Of A Live World: Troxy London MMXXIV out now – Universal Music Canada](https://www.universalmusic.ca/2024/12/13/the-cure-songs-of-a-live-world-troxy-london-mmxxiv-out-now/)
14. [The Cure – Alone (The Show of a Lost World – Live from Troxy 2024) – YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA1lIQWU-EI)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musical works and recordings › Compositions and songs › Pop, rock, and metal songs › New wave and post-punk songs*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license