The Cure have won the first two Grammys of their legendary career, for their comeback album ‘Songs Of A Lost World’.
At the ceremony at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena tonight (February 1), the band picked up two prizes – Best Alternative Music Album and Best Alternative Music Performance, the latter for ‘Alone’.
They had only previously been nominated for two Grammys in their career, both in the Best Alternative Music Album category – in 1993 for ‘Wish’ and in 2001 for ‘Bloodflowers’, but were unsuccessful on both occasions.
They were not on hand to accept their awards, as they were attending the funeral of their long-time guitarist and keyboardist Perry Bamonte, who died in December at the age of 65.
They did, however, send a speech that was read from the stage, in which frontman Robert Smith said: “Simon, Jason, Roger, Reeves and I would like to thank the Grammys for this wonderful award, we are very honoured to receive it.”
“We would also like to thank everyone who helped in the creation of our ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ album, particularly co-producer Paul Corkett, everyone in the Universal Music Group who worked so hard to get our ‘Lost World’ found, everyone in our mostly indefatigable crew…and most importantly, all of the Cure fans around the world, who came to our ‘Lost World’ shows and enjoyed our ‘Lost World’ music. Without you, none of this would be possible. Thank you!”
In the Best Alternative Music Performance category, they beat out Bon Iver, Turnstile, Wet Leg and Hayley Williams, while for Best Alternative Music Album, they won ahead of Bon Iver, Tyler, The Creator, Wet Leg and Hayley Williams.
‘Songs Of A Lost World’ was the band’s first album in 16 years and it earned a glowing five-star review from NME, who said: “Merciless? Yes, but there’s always enough heart in the darkness and opulence in the sound to hold you and place these songs alongside The Cure’s finest. The frontman suggested that another two records may be arriving at some point, but ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ feels sufficient enough for the wait we’ve endured, just for being arguably the most personal album of Smith’s career. Mortality may loom, but there’s colour in the black and flowers on the grave.”
Their last live show was the intimate album release party show at London’s Troxy, which has since been released as a concert film, The Show Of A Lost World. They have also released the remix album ‘Mixes Of A Lost World’.