The Treatment’s Songs of a Misplaced World returns after sixteen years, not as a nostalgic rehash however as Robert Smith’s meditative exploration of life’s darker edges. Throughout eight tracks, the album plunges into themes of mortality and loss, providing a surprisingly comforting expertise. It’s a reckoning with time that feels surprisingly uplifting, with Smith as resolute as ever.

From the haunting opener ‘Alone,’ with its lingering synths and echoing drums, Songs of a Misplaced World units an elegiac tone. Smith’s voice, nonetheless unmistakable, intones traces that appear like reflections on his journey and life’s closing chapters. ‘I Can By no means Say Goodbye,’ a dedication to Smith’s late brother, sheds poetic abstraction in favour of stark, weak lyricism, whereas ‘Drone: Nodrone’ embraces the depth of Pornography, with Reeves Gabrels’ guitars including a darker edge.

The ten-minute nearer, ‘Endsong,’ sees Smith reflecting on ageing: “I’m exterior at midnight / Questioning how I received so previous.” It’s a fittingly huge meditation that feels satisfyingly full with no need decision.

Smith and co-producer Paul Corkett, who additionally labored on Bloodflowers, have crafted a haunting manufacturing model. Jason Cooper’s drumming is highly effective but contained, Simon Gallup’s bass stays grounding, and Gabrels’ guitar textures deepen the album’s doom-laden atmosphere. Refusing to chase radio-friendliness, Songs of a Misplaced World maintains a constant, melancholic ambiance that matches its themes. And it’s such a welcome consistency.

Although comparisons to Disintegration and Bloodflowers are inevitable, this album feels extra private, stripped of the angst that colored The Treatment’s early work. Its sombre however grand scale is one way or the other each an intimate and expansive declaration of time and existence. For listeners keen to embrace this darkness, it’s a difficult however extremely rewarding journey, changing despair into one thing deeply resonant.

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