American Football cover The Cure's "Boys Don't Cry" and win Robert Smith's praise
The live take, recorded for SiriusXM alongside "Wake Her Up" from the band's 2026 self-titled album, is out now through Polyvinyl Records.
American Football have shared their take on "Boys Don't Cry" by The Cure. The track was captured live during a SiriusXM session, the same recording that produced a live version of "Wake Her Up," a song from the band's 2026 self-titled album.
Both recordings are out now via Polyvinyl Records, available digitally and physically. Together they serve as a snapshot of where the band stands right now, as it keeps working material from the new record into sessions and live settings.
The song's author weighed in. Robert Smith publicly addressed the version, calling it "one of the most heartfelt and beautiful Cure covers I have ever heard" — an endorsement that pushed the release well past the usual reach of a radio session.
A touchstone of melodic emo and math rock since the late 1990s, American Football have long been read as a bridge between the genre's interlocking clean guitars and the pop melancholy of the early 1980s, a territory "Boys Don't Cry" helped define. The choice of material lands naturally within the band's vocabulary.
The live single is streaming now, with the physical edition also available through Polyvinyl.
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