Justin Hawkins has shared his admiration for The Cure and the band’s new material, despite Robert Smith previously saying he isn’t a fan of The Darkness.
The comments from The Darkness’ frontman come as The Cure are preparing for the upcoming release of ‘Songs Of A Lost World’. It’ll be their first album in 16 years, following on from 2008’s ‘4:13 Dream’, and has already been previewed by the lead single ‘Alone’.
On Sunday night (October 6), the post-punk icons dropped a teaser of the second single ‘A Fragile Thing’ via the group’s fan WhatsApp channel and mailing list. They would go on to share another preview on their social media channels yesterday (7).
The upcoming song – which is set to arrive tomorrow, ahead of the album release on November 1 – has already debuted alongside ‘Alone’ at a 2022 show, and has been a frequent part of the band’s live setlists in the time since.
Now, Justin Hawkins has shared his thoughts on the new Cure material, and revealed that he considers Smith to be one of his favourite vocalists, even though the frontman dislikes The Darkness.
The comments from Smith first came in a 2004 Rolling Stone interview where he said: “I can honestly say I hated Queen and everything that they did. To have that rehashed [with The Darkness] and reheated for a second time around is pretty weird. So, no, I don’t like the Darkness at all. I think they’re a comedy band.”
Addressing the opinion, Hawkins took to YouTube, saying: “I heard Robert Smith saying some disparaging remarks about the flamboyance and [how] he just doesn’t like Queen I suppose.
“I took that as a personal slight and he may have said something bad about The Darkness. I may have indeed heckled him once at the Ivor Novello Awards or some award ceremony somewhere when I was very very very drunk,” he continued.
“But that’s only because it hurt me so much. I think the way I enunciate when I sing and the Englishness of the pronunciation is definitely inspired by Robert Smith. He’s one of my favourite singers, funnily enough. I only heckled him because I was hurt that he didn’t like my music.”
As well as praising Smith as one of his favourite vocalists and recalling the influence he had in his own work, Hawkins also went on to play the snippet of the new Cure material and analyse it for fans.
Listening to ‘Alone’, he paid close attention to the instrumentals and vocal melodies before sharing his thoughts. “Whatever he’s been doing for the last 16 years, it works. You can hear something in the timbre of his voice that’s a little bit Jeff Buckley,” he said.
“I know he’s not exploring the same ranges as Jeff Buckley, but he’s not just emoting, he’s properly singing.” check out the video in full above, and listen to the new single below.
Following the lead single being shared, Smith has revealed that ‘Alone’ was inspired by the Ernest Dowson poem Dregs, and shared a number of new paintings that are going to auction for charity.
The band have been discussing ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ for some time, telling NME after their 2019 Glastonbury headline set that the record would be “merciless” and “express the darker side of what I’ve experienced over the last few years”.
Some of the tracks are influenced by the passing of Smith’s mother, father and brother, which he revealed in 2019 was the source for some of the new record’s “darkness”.
When speaking to NME backstage at the BandLab NME Awards 2022, Smith revealed that the band were working on two albums – describing ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ as “relentless doom and gloom” and the second one as “upbeat”.
Since its official announcement, Smith has shared his thoughts on why the record has taken so long to see the light of day: “I don’t think there was really a kind of an official beginning to this album because it’s been kind of drifting in and out of my life for like an awful long time. I mean if I have one regret is that I said anything at all about it in 2019 because I really shouldn’t have done that,” he said.
Before the LP’s release, the band will be playing two shows for the BBC at the end of this month. You can enter a ballot for tickets to the first show on the BBC’s website until 9pm BST October 9. The band have been teasing another song, ‘Endsong’, too, although further details about that track remain unknown for now.
As for The Darkness, Justin Hawkins and co. have recently shared details of a new album called ‘Dreams On Toast’, as well as an upcoming UK tour and new lead single titled ‘The Longest Kiss’.
English (US) · 