American Football have officially released their stripped-back take on the classic ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ – praised by Robert Smith as “one of the most heartfelt and beautiful Cure covers I have ever heard”.
The cover of the hit 1979 song was first performed by American Football during their debut on SiriusXMU earlier this summer – recorded between stops on their global ‘No Feeling Tour’.
That song marks only the second cover the alt-rock giants have broken out in their 30 year discography, following them putting their own spin on Mazzy Star’s ‘Fade Into You’ in 2021. The SiriusXMU appearance also saw them perform an acoustic rendition of their own track ‘Wake Her Up’, which was released as part of their latest album ‘LP4‘ and originally featured Wisp.
Now, both the acoustic version of ‘Wake Her Up’ and the cover of ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ have been officially released and available to stream for the first time.
“The Cure, and specifically ‘Boys Don’t Cry’, has not only been fundamental to my growth as a songwriter but as much or more so on my development as a man,” said frontman Mike Kinsella. “It just seemed like the perfect fit for a bunch of melodically-driven, emotionally available grown men to deconstruct and try to make our own.
“We replaced the jangle with some spindly guitars, slowed it down quite a bit, and added a mournful trumpet solo, but the plain-spoken adolescent longing remains as resonant as ever.”
The Cure’s frontman Robert Smith also gave the cover his seal of approval, describing it as “One of the most heartfelt and beautiful Cure covers I have ever heard”.
The release of ‘Wake Her Up / Boys Don’t Cry (SiriusXM Session)’ arrives ahead of the midwest emo band kicking off the next leg of their ‘No Feeling World Tour’, having already played across the US, UK, Europe, Asia, and Mexico throughout the summer.
Highlights of the tour have already included surprise appearances from Hayley Williams, Wisp and Soccer Mommy, and the remainder of the live shows will take place across North and South America throughout the remainder of the year.
Dates kick off in Chile on November 28, and continue with stops in Brazil, Argentina and Peru, before wrapping up with eight shows across the US. In a new partnership with PLUS1, $1 from every ticket sold will go towards organisations protecting immigrant rights and supporting deportees, migrants and refugees.
Visit here for tickets, and check out a list of remaining dates below.
American Football’s 2026 live shows are:
NOVEMBER
28 – Santiago, CL @ Fauna Primavera
30 – São Paulo, BR @ Audio
DECEMBER
2 – Buenos Aires, AR @ C Art Media
5 – Lima, PE @ Veltrac Music Festival
11 – Fort Lauderdale, FL @ Revolution Live
12 – Tampa, FL @ Ritz Ybor
13 – Orlando, FL @ Plaza Live
15 – Jacksonville, FL @ Five
16 – Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore Charlotte
18 – New Haven, CT @ College Street Music Hall
19 – Worcester, MA @ Palladium
20 – Buffalo, NY @ Asbury Hall
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Earlier this year, American Football spoke to NME about ‘LP4’, and revealed why fans had to wait so long for the follow-up to their third record, which arrived in 2019.
“It does seem like a long gap between ‘LP3’ and ‘LP4’ from the outside, but from our perspective we knew we were going to take a year off after that record because we toured a lot for a bunch of guys that have kids and jobs outside of the band,” explained guitarist Steve Holmes. “We planned to take a year’s hiatus and then the pandemic happened. We started to write the fourth record virtually and then Lamos decided to step away from the band about 2021.”
Check out the full interview here, where the band also explain how getting Turnstile frontman Brendan Yates on the record was a “happy accident”.