4:13 Dream: Colour after the storm
Bright guitars and direct melodies give The Cure’s thirteenth album an appealing lift, even when the larger design feels unfinished.
“Underneath the Stars” opens 4:13 Dream on a scale that promises an epic: guitars spiral, the rhythm section surges and Robert Smith sounds fully at home inside the weather. Much of what follows is leaner and brighter. After the forceful self-titled album, The Cure rediscover air in the mix and an almost youthful appetite for sharp, colourful guitar pop.
Inside the record
The directness works well on “The Reasons Why” and “The Hungry Ghost”, songs that pair familiar concerns with uncluttered hooks. “This. Here and Now. With You.” is especially affecting, its awkward title resolving into an intimate insistence on presence. “Sleep When I’m Dead” carries the snap of an older idea revived with enthusiasm. The weaker moments feel less like bad songs than pieces detached from a larger intended picture; the album was conceived from sessions once planned as a double release, and its final sequence occasionally suggests missing connective tissue.
Even so, 4:13 Dream deserves better than its status as the record before the long silence. It captures a functioning band enjoying the physical sound of playing together. The production can turn bright guitars brittle at high volume, and the emotional arc never fully settles, but there is pleasure in its movement. It is a good Cure album rather than a central one—open-hearted, imperfect and more rewarding than the shorthand around it implies.