Upcoming Releases

Big Scary Monsters Records are pleased to announce that they will release the new album from Omaha, Nebraska cult rock band Cursive later this year. The record will be the band’s first new material in six years. The new album is titled Vitriola and will be released on 5th October 2018 by Big Scary Monsters (UK) and the band’s own 15 Passenger Records (US).

To celebrate the news the band are streaming lead single ‘Life Savings’ in full.

Commenting on the track, front man Tim Kasher said: “This song reminds me of machinery, maybe a train that keeps chugging forward, or perhaps a printing press printing 'money'. It also feels as though it's burdened with a heavy weight and, for many of us, the weight of worrying about money can be all consuming.”

Over the past two decades, Cursive have become known for writing smart, tightly-woven concept albums with front man Tim Kasher turning his unflinching gaze on specific, often challenging, themes, and examining them with an incisively brutal honesty.

2000’s Domestica dealt with divorce; 2003’s The Ugly Organ tackled art, sex, and relationships; 2006’s Happy Hollow skewered organized religion; 2009’s Mama, I’m Swollen grappled with the human condition and social morality; and 2012’s I Am Gemini explored the battle between good and evil.

The band’s remarkable eighth full-length, Vitriola, required a different approach; one less rigidly themed and more reactionary as the band struggles with existentialism veering towards nihilism and despair; the ways in which society, much like a writer, creates and destroys; and an oncoming dystopia that feels eerily near at hand.

For the first time since Happy Hollow, the album reunites Kasher, guitarist/singer Ted Stevens and bassist Matt Maginn with founding drummer Clint Schnase, as well as co-producer Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, M. Ward, Jenny Lewis) at ARC Studios in Omaha. They’re joined by Patrick Newbery on keys (who’s been a full-time member for years) and touring mainstay Megan Siebe on cello.

Vitriola raises a stark question: is this it? Is everything simply broken, leaving us hopeless and nihilistic? Maybe not. There can be reassurance in commiseration, and the album is deeply relatable: Cursive may not be offering the answers, but there is hope in knowing you're not alone in the chaos.

Track listing:

1. Free To Be Or Not To Be You And Me
2. Pick Up The Pieces
3. It’s Gonna Hurt
4. Under The Rainbow
5. Remorse
6. Ouroboros
7. Everending
8. Ghost Writer
9. Life Savings
10. Noble Soldier / Dystopian Lament