American Football turn The Cure's "Boys Don't Cry" inside out on SiriusXMU

American Football recorded an in-studio session for SiriusXMU and used the opportunity to pay tribute to one of their own formative influences, covering The Cure's "Boys Don't Cry."

The band's take bears little resemblance to the original. They drag the tempo way down, weave multiple acoustic guitar lines together and pile on harmonies with a funereal quality, reshaping one of the most recognizable songs in The Cure's catalog into something much closer to the Midwest emo language American Football helped build.

Mike Kinsella teased the cover a day earlier on Instagram, posting a clip of himself on acoustic guitar stitching together an instrumental medley of "Boys Don't Cry" and American Football's own "Never Meant," with his dog asleep beside him.

The song choice ties back to a recent GQ profile of the band written by Grayson Haver Currin, in which Kinsella discussed how The Smiths and The Cure shaped his early understanding of music, leaving him convinced that songs had to be sad and earnest. In the same piece, he said pop punk never appealed to him.

Back together since 2014, American Football have had a complicated reunion, as the GQ profile detailed at length. The group remains a touchstone for younger artists, with Hayley Williams and Turnstile's Brendan Yates among those who have worked with them. The band is currently promoting its fourth album.