The Cure have announced their first new album in 16 years.

The 'Boys Don't Cry' rockers - whose last album was 2008's '4:13 Dream' - will be back with a fresh collection when 'Songs of a Lost World' drops on November 1.

They have been playing new song 'Alone' on their recent 90-date world tour, and the single - which is also the opening track of the upcoming LP - is now available to stream.

Reflecting on the song, frontman Robert Smith said in a statement: "It's the track that unlocked the record; as soon as we had that piece of music recorded I knew it was the opening song, and I felt the whole album come into focus."

He admitted he had been finding it difficult to settle on "the right opening line" for the first song of the album, and in the end it was 'Dregs' by poet Ernest Dowson which helped everything fall into place.

He added: "I had been struggling to find the right opening line for the right opening song for a while, working with the simple idea of ‘being alone’, always in the back of my mind this nagging feeling that I already knew what the opening line should be…

"As soon as we finished recording I remembered the poem ‘Dregs' by the English poet Ernest Dowson… and that was the moment when I knew the song - and the album - were real."

The cover art for the new album features 'Bagatelle', a 1975 sculpture by Janez Pirnat, while Cure's longtime collaborator Andy Vella handled the artwork and design.

The tracks were recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales, and the group will be unveiled the full tracklist "over the coming weeks, having showcased some off the tunes on their recent tour.

As well as a single LP and CD, the new album will also be available as "a Miles Showell Abbey Road half-speed master 2LP", plus a marble-coloured LP, double cassette, and a deluxe CD package with a Blu-ray including an instrumental version of the collection as well as a Dolby Atmos mix.