Although The Cure would go on to release two more albums in between, I think the song in their catalogue that most presages the themes explored on Songs of a Lost World, is The Last Day of Summer. Shrouded in wistful longing, resignation, and melancholy, Smith grapples with aging and a sense of time running out; but in a way that's too achingly beautiful to qualify as wallowing. Heavy on strings, the fuzz-tinted guitar work produces a powerful gaze adjacent Cure track.