American Football officially release their cover of The Cure's “Boys Don't Cry”

American Football have officially released their stripped-back version of “Boys Don't Cry”, The Cure's 1979 hit, which Cure frontman Robert Smith called one of the “most heartfelt and beautiful Cure covers” he has heard, according to NME. The release, “Wake Her Up / Boys Don't Cry (SiriusXM Session)”, also includes an acoustic take on the band's own “Wake Her Up”, from their latest album “LP4”, where the song originally featured Wisp.

Both performances were recorded this summer during the band's SiriusXMU debut, between dates of their “No Feeling Tour”. It is only the second cover in their 30-year history, after Mazzy Star's “Fade Into You” in 2021. Frontman Mike Kinsella said the song shaped him as a songwriter and as a man. The band slowed it down, swapped the jangle for spindly guitars and added a mournful trumpet solo.

American Football are an indie rock band formed in 1997 in Urbana, in the United States, associated with Midwest emo and math rock. Earlier in 2026, guitarist Steve Holmes told NME the long gap between “LP3” (2019) and “LP4” came from a planned break, the pandemic and Lamos stepping away from the band around 2021.

The next leg of the tour opens on 28 November in Santiago, Chile, at Fauna Primavera, continues through Brazil, Argentina and Peru, and ends with eight US shows, the last on 20 December in Buffalo. Through a partnership with PLUS1, $1 from every ticket goes to organisations protecting immigrant rights.