The Cure and Siouxsie And The Banshees are two of the all-time great bands. They both came from the same era, and they both had seismic impacts on goth, post-punk, and new wave. Both bands were always intertwined in many ways; the Cure’s Robert Smith, for instance, did a couple of stints as the guitarist for the Banshees. Both acts have been in the news lately, with the Cure’s big North American tour proving that you can make a ton of money while keeping ticket prices relatively low and with Siouxsie Sioux returning for her first live shows in a decade. Now, the definitive drummers from both bands have joined forces with a big-deal producer on a new album, and they’ve got LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy singing on the lead single.

Lol Tolhurst was one of the founding members of the Cure. He started with the band in 1976, and he played with them until 1989. Peter “Budgie” Clark joined Siouxsie And The Banshees in 1979, and he stayed with the band until they broke up in 1996. Budgie and Siouxsie Sioux also used to be married, and they had a side project called the Creatures. Since 2021, Lolhurst and Budgie have been doing a post-punk podcast called Curious Creatures. On the forthcoming album Los Angeles, the two of them join forces with Jacknife Lee, a producer best known for his work with Snow Patrol, U2, and R.E.M.

Los Angeles features a ton of big-name guests, including U2’s Edge, Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock, Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie, IDLES’ Mark Bowen, Lonnie Holley, and Mary Lattimore. LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy sings two songs on the album, and the first of them is the title track. “Los Angeles” is a widescreen industrial shuffle with Murphy screaming about societal ills: “Los Angeles eats its babies! Los Angeles eats its young! Los Angeles, you don’t need water! Los Angeles just needs guns!” It sounds a lot more like LCD Soundsystem than like the Cure or Siouxsie And The Banshees.

James Murphy doesn’t appear in the Los Angeles videos. Instead, director John Liwag gives us a high-contrast black-and-white cityscape with skateboarders and punk-rock cheerleaders, with Jacknife Lee lip-syncing some of Murphy’s lyrics. Below, check out the video and the Los Angeles tracklist.

TRACKLIST:
01 “This Is What It Is (To Be Free)” (Feat. Bobby Gillespie)
02 “Los Angeles” (Feat. James Murphy)
03 “Uh Oh” (Feat. Arrow de Wilde & Mark Bowen)
04 “Ghosted At Home” (Feat. Bobby Gillespie)
05 “Train With No Station” (Feat. The Edge)
06 “Bodies” (Feat. Lonnie Holley & Mary Lattimore)
07 “Everything And Nothing”
08 “Travel Channel” (Feat. Pam Amsterdam)
09 “Country Of The Blind” (Feat. Bobby Gillespie)
10 “The Past (Being Eaten)”
11 “We Got To Move” (Feat. Isaac Brock)
12 “Noche Oscura” (Feat. the Edge)
13 “Skins” (Feat. James Murphy)

Los Angeles is out 11/3 on Play It Again Sam.