Amidst The Cure’s ongoing North American tour, Robert Smith has been workshopping new music. During the first of three shows at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday night, the band premiered a never-before-heard track called “Another Happy Birthday.”
Even by The Cure’s standards, “Another Happy Birthday” is an especially depressing song. “And your birthday is the worst day/ I’m singing to a ghost/ Happy birthday/ I forget how it goes,” Smith sings alongside lush but muted instrumentation.
The origins of “Another Happy Birthday actually date as far back to 1997. Back then, Smith mentioned the song’s existence in connection to a B-sides and rarities collection he was working on. “It’s unlike anything The Cure have done before. It’s not a verse-chorus-verse type of song, but more fluid,” he told MTV at the time.
It’s not clear if the version Smith debuted on Tuesday night is the same song, or an entirely different work with the same name. It’s also unknown whether the song will appear on The Cure’s long-in-the-works new album, Songs of a Lost World. Smith previously premiered several other new songs on the band’s current tour, including “Alone,” “And Nothing Is Forever,” “A Fragile Thing,” and “I Can Never Say Goodbye.”
The North American leg of of The Cure’s “Songs of a Lost World Tour” runs through early July. The tour’s ticket on-sale has been quite the ordeal, but there are limited quantities still available via Ticketmaster.
