Through the decades, the Cure have shapeshifted through dreary paranoia and pop love songs, influencing dozens of artists disparate in genre (Nine Inch Nails, Thursday, Phoebe Bridgers). Songs of a Lost World proves they are still masters of their craft, punctuated by Smith’s plaintive voice.

The set marks the group's first leader on the 33-year-old Top Album Sales chart, and the band's highest-charting album on the Billboard 200 since 1992.

And so a more honest or accurate survey of The Cure’s greatness might focus on singles or deep cuts or their many compilations instead; I won’t argue with anyone who discovered The Cure from Staring At The Sea and still views their first Greatest Hits as a definitive work.