Freshly signed to Run For Cover Records, Cursive today announced their new album ‘Devourer‘ will be released on September 13, 2024. The iconic Omaha band is known for their intensity, ambition, and execution, and has spent 30 years creating a bold discography that’s defined as much by its cathartic sound as its weighty, challenging lyrical themes. ‘Devourer’ is now available for pre-order.
As daring as ever, their 10th album ‘Devourer’ is full of intense and incisive songs, proving exactly why Cursive have been so influential and enduring–and why they remain so vital today. The album’s lead single Up and Away is also out now alongside a video directed by Brea Grant (12 Hour Shift, Torn Hearts) and starring Jonah Ray; anchored by a sinuous bassline, the song exemplifies the band’s signature blend of dissonance and deep melody.
“‘Up And Away’ is an unusual pop song, it kind of slinks about musically. I had the ‘up, up, up, up, up, up and away’ section of lyrics in my head from its inception but hadn’t planned on using something so bright, cheery and arguably trite…until it occurred to me that what I was really singing about was something floating away from me, something I was losing, not my personal elevation into some stratosphere. So, it stuck,” explains singer/guitarist Tim Kasher. “The video is the first in a series of horror-esque stories we’ve been planning for some time now, a collection of videos created by genre directors. Brea Grant conceived this story of a down-on-his-luck loafer who gets consumed by his own depression, swallowed into some surreal underworld of blanket forts where Cursive seems to be wallowing as well.”
In the years since their 1995 formation, Cursive developed into one of the most important groups to emerge from the late-’90s/early ‘00s moment when the lines between indie rock and post-hardcore began blurring into something altogether new. Albums like ‘Domestica‘ (2000) and ‘The Ugly Organ‘ (2003) became essential touchstones whose echoes can still be heard in new bands today. The pull of nostalgia can be strong over time, but Cursive’s work has often felt like a rejection of those comfort zones; the band has continually pushed themselves, with Kasher’s artistic restlessness steering them ahead. In fact, for Kasher, whose pointed observations always begin with looking inward first, it was an interrogation of this voracious creativity that planted the seeds of ‘Devourer’.
“I am obsessive about consuming the arts,” he explains. “Music, film, literature. I’ve come to recognize that I devour all of these art forms then, in turn, create my own versions of these things and spew them out onto the world. It’s positive; you’re part of an ecosystem. But I quickly recognized that the term, ‘Devourer,’ may also embody something gnarly, sinister.” Devourer delves into that darker space. The characters populating the album have bottomless capacities for consumption, whether it’s resources, material goods, art, or even each other. Then they are consumed by larger forces, whether it’s humanity, Earth, dreams, time, or life itself. “Maybe a better word for it is imperialism,” Kasher says. “But it’s in many different forms. It’s not just the political. It’s personal imperialism and the imperialism of relationships, the way we imperialize one another, even ourselves.”
Fans have come to expect such heady topics from Cursive, but ‘Devourer’ sets a new standard. The glibness of the First World toward the problems of others. The eternal struggle to stay on the straight and narrow. The eager acolytes exploited by their leaders. How anxiety can compound with age. How self-expression can warp into self-indulgence. The album being filled to the brim thematically and musically is unsurprising considering Kasher wrote an astounding 69 compositions after songwriting began in 2020. About 20 made it to the practice space, with a curated 13 ending up on the final album. Wrangling it all at Omaha’s ARC Studios was Marc Jacob Hudson (Against Me!, Thursday, Fireworks), who co-produced ‘Devourer’ with the band. The album sounds urgent and fresh, the work of a band still experimenting, still hungering to find new creative heights.
Now seven members strong (“We seem to be collecting band members over the years,” Kasher jokes), Cursive had a large musical toolbox to use on ‘Devourer’. Beyond the core trio of Kasher, bassist Matt Maginn, and guitarist/vocalist Ted Stevens, the band includes: keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist Patrick Newbery; cellist Megan Siebe; and recording/touring drummer Pat Oakes and founding drummer Clint Schnase (the two trade drumming duties across ‘Devourer’, but join forces for a two-pronged percussive force in Rookie).
Up and Away is out now and streaming everywhere. ‘Devourer’ will be available Friday September 13 via Run For Cover Records & Cooking Vinyl Australia, pre-orders live now.
