"I like the sound of deadlines as they rush past my head," says Cure frontman Robert Smith, explaining why his new album has been two years in the works. Now, after a massive world tour, Smith has met his deadline. The Cure's latest has the same gloriously gloomy vibe as the band's Eighties discs — one song, "Sleep When I'm Dead," was originally written for 1985's The Head on the Door. Smith's new lyrics, however, take on current events. "I'm trying to be a bit more socially aware," says Smith. "I've always been very careful to shy away from that, but the songs are about things that bother me in a global sense."

"The Only One"

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview