Olivia Rodrigo lived out the ultimate teenage fantasy: writing a song for Robert Smith about how unhappy you are and being hugged by the lead singer of the Cure. The two had a surprise duet at Primavera performing a piece that will be on her new album and which has a very Robert Smith-like title, What's Wrong With Me?. What a beautiful moment of intergenerational gothic harmony. The god of 80s melancholy was proud and happy as he sang alongside Rodigo this great new song that he himself helped inspire. Who hasn't dreamed of making a list of all their problems and then asking Robert Smith what's wrong? And who hasn't dreamed of hearing Robert sing your words and reassure you that everything will be okay? Well done Olivia for turning this fantasy into reality. To paraphrase the title of the album you're about to release, you seem pretty sad to be such a lovestruck goth.
Rodrigo evidently wasn't joking when he kept repeating that his new songs were deeply inspired by The Cure. He sang at Primavera Drop Deadwith the line “You know all the words to Just Like Heaven and I know why he wrote them”, and then dueted with the author of those words. And yes, he also has another piece entitled The Cure. What a wonderful rock friendship. It's the grooviest thing, it's a perfect dream.
Robertrigo's duet was the sequel to what happened last summer at Glastonbury. “He's probably the best songwriter to ever come out of England,” Liv said as Smith unexpectedly took to the stage. After they sang together, she called him “the coolest, kindest, most wonderful man in the world.” They did Just Like Heaven And Friday I'm in Love while she wore a t-shirt that read “Do you know all the words to Just Like Heaven…or not?” It took almost a year and the publication of Drop Dead to understand that writing.
Now, if you haven't known The Cure for a long time, you should know that Robert Smith almost never does things like this. Not in the 80s, not in the 90s, not today. He doesn't just do them. He has always been generous and helpful with younger artists, but tends to avoid public investitures of this kind. See him go on stage at a festival to sing someone else's song? Surprising. But it is the measure of the respect and admiration he feels for Rodrigo.
What's Wrong With Me? it is also perfect for the melancholic voices of the two. “I went to the doctor and he told me I was fine,” the text says. “I tried meditation with a bottle of wine / It's like someone put a weight on my chest / I should be talking to a friend, but I can't get out of bed / My head is spinning and my stomach is upset.” It's clear that the girl has been listening to The Cure. It's as if the song says, “You know all the words to Disintegrationand I know why he wrote them.” As always, Rodrigo captures the details perfectly. I love the way he sings about not being able to get out of bed, which is very Robert Smith-esque with lines like “I wish I'd stayed asleep today” and “I must have stayed asleep for days.” In fact, her symptoms are so similar to the ones he described in Close to Me that the duet ends up feeling like a specialist visit.
Over the years, Smith has collaborated with a small circle of his “disciples” such as Chvrches, Twilight Sad, Crystal Castles, Gorillaz and Tweaker. Appears on a Billy Corgan solo album in a bizarre Bee Gees cover. He also did a thing with Blink-182, proof of his sense of humor. And Mick Jagger announced that Smith is backing vocals on the new Rolling Stones album Foreign Tonguesprobably the only thing the Stones' album will have in common with Olivia's. There are precedents, but these Robertrigo duets are a rare sight. She has been an obsessive Cure fan since childhood: who can forget the video in which, in the car, she sings at the top of her lungs Boys Don't Cry? She is an adoring fan who has always considered Robert Smith an idol, watching him on stage in wonder. At Glastonbury, longtime Cure fans were amazed at how happy and smiley he was, something you don't see every day. After Glastonbury, she posted a photo of them backstage… downing some shots. The last image anyone would have expected and that's exactly why it was amazing.
Not even a year later, here they are together again to sing one of her songs. «It's my first collaboration!», he told the Primavera audience on Saturday evening, letting the suspense grow. «I'm proud of it, I can't believe this song exists, with the person it exists with». No one knew it was Smith until he came on stage to sing the second verse, although we should all have known from the play on words when she sings “I'm staring at the ceeei-ling” (the Cure's greatest hits collection was called Staring at the Sea).
What's Wrong With Me? is the fourth new song he has teased from his highly anticipated album out this week, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So In Love. It is the first collaboration of his career and it is something unusual even for him. Smith was already at Primavera as The Cure headlined the festival on Friday and their setlist was full of rarities such as the stunning 1996 single Mint Carwhich they hadn't played for a decade, along with classics like Pictures of You, Fascination Street, The Lovecats and, of course, Just Like Heaven.
One of Robert Smith's many paradoxes is that he has always been the archetypal depressed, melancholy British goth kid, yet he found some of his most loyal followers in the new wave girls of '80s Southern California. His angst- and rain-soaked ballads were a huge hit in the land of sun and surf. «I remember that during the tour of Kiss Me we were in Los Angeles,” Smith told Rolling Stone in 2004, «and there were girls who took off their clothes and lay down in front of the bus to stop us from leaving. I thought it wasn't what I imagined doing with the band.”
But Robert Smith always had the utmost respect for that audience, even when it would have been much more fashionable to dismiss those teenage fans with disdain. American kids discovered The Cure with the 1982 single Let's Go to Bed which is about a couple who stay up all night arguing when in reality they just need a herbal tea and a few hours of sleep. “Suddenly it was having success, especially on the West Coast and we found ourselves with a young, predominantly female and teenage audience. We went from intense, brooding, psychotic goths to people with perfectly white teeth. It was a definitely weird transition, but it was fun.”
So it makes sense to see him pass the baton to Olivia, who perfectly embodies the Southern California new wave fangirl. She has always had a passion for this music, as heard in 80s-flavored songs like I know American, Deja Vu or Love Is Embarrassing. Or Drop Deada song that would fit great in Blue Sunshinethe perfect goth album from Smith's parallel band Glove (I bet Punish Me With Kisses it was in the jukebox of the bar mentioned by the singer). Yet Rodrigo has crossed the line between fan and collaborator with What's Wrong With Me?. It is a remarkable statement of esteem from the poet of the adolescent angst he gave us Seventeen Seconds And The Head on the Door who evidently takes Rodrigo and his music seriously, just as he has always taken his female audience seriously. He also knows how to capture the humor as well as the pain of the sad pieces. One of my favorite The Cure live moments was a couple of years ago at Madison Square Garden when they did Lovesong and the whole room sang the refrain “I will always love youuuu!” And immediately afterwards he announced: “The next one is called And Nothing Is Forever».
Some of us were hoping he would stay on stage with Olivia to sing on Saturday Happier or Favorite Crimebut unfortunately it didn't happen (by the way, the cover project of Sour Is he still in things or not? It was off to a great start with David Byrne playing Drivers License and then… vanished). The more Olivia songs she does, the better. These two should continue singing together – imagine how amazing it would be to hear a mash-up between Drop Dead And The Hanging Garden? (“Pressed up in the bathroom line / Cover my face as the animals cryyyy”?). For those who love The Cure like I do, Robert Smith is someone we turn to with adolescent desperation, a confidant and a mentor, and somehow we wholeheartedly believe he understands us. We entrust our saddest secrets to him. See him side by side with Olivia Rodrigo as he sings his secrets in front of the whole world? It's pure goth instinct. Robertrigo forever.
From Rolling Stone US.
