URGH is not among the onomatopoeia I'd exclaim upon learning a new Mandy, Indiana album is on the way — oooooh is more like it — but it is the title of said album. The follow-up to the Manchester band's 2023 debut i've seen a way is dropping in February, and they shared lead single "Magazine" along with the announcement. Today we get advance track #2.
"Cursive" begins with frenetic percussion, and the percolations continue throughout as the track expands into a noisy, poppy dance track. As the band explains, that emphasis on rhythm arose from a change in their songwriting process:
"Cursive" is probably our most collaborative track to-date. Whilst Scott [Fair]
and Valentine [Caulfield] often offer the initial impetus behind most of our songs, "Cursive" was built up from a number of Alex [Macdougall]'s rhythmic sketches and Simon [Catling]'s bass sequence. Valentine added her vocals later and Scott worked to sculpt these elements together. It was exciting having everyone bring their own ideas to the table from the off, throwing them together and seeing what could come out of it — a bit of a step into the unknown for us as a band.
The existence of a Mandy, Indiana song called "Cursive" makes me long for a response song from Cursive called "Mandy, Indiana." Watch director Stephen Agnew's video for "Cursive" below.
URGH is out 2/6 via Sacred Bones.
