Scottish post punk outfit The Twilight Sad — currently, vocalist James Graham and multi-instrumentalist Andy MacFarlane — recently announced that their long-awaited sixth album and first in seven years, It’s The Long Goodbye. The album, which will include the previously released “Waiting For The Phone Call” featuring The Cure‘s Robert Smith on guitar, is slated for a March 27, 2026 release through Rock Action Records.
The origins of It’s The Long Goodbye‘s material can be traced back to 2016: Graham and McFarlane returned from the “pinch yourself” high of a tour with The Cure to learn that Graham’s mother had been diagnosed with early onset frontotemporal dementia. Roughly 80% of the album was written as Graham wrestled with the contrast between the joys his life — marriage, parenthood, career — and the bitter cruelty of his mother’s decline, followed by her death.
Over the next seven years, the album’s material was further developed with the London-based MacFarlane stockpiling musical ideas during COVID-19 lockdown, while exchanging words and sounds with Graham. The Cure’s Robert Smith, now a longtime close friend of the duo, provided invaluable input on the album’s demos and contributed guitar on “Waiting For The Phone Call,” mellotron on “Dead Flowers,” and six-string bass on “Back To Fourteen.”
“Then we had to piece together a band,” Graham says, now that the band is centered on him and MacFarlane. Sometimes Arab Strap members David Jeans and Mogwai touring member Alex Mackay were recruited to play drums and bass respectively, with the album produced and recorded by the band’s MacFalane with addition production from Andy Savours at Willesden’s Battery Studios, a location rich in The Cure history.
The end result may arguably be the most personal yet relatable album to date from a band whose portraits of bruised and battered humanity have helped to forge close ties with their audience. “In the past, I’ve used a lot of metaphors within my lyrics,” Graham says, “With this, there’s not as much. The record is heavily influenced by my mental health, grief and loss, and the need to be strong in positions where you’re not feeling it. It’s a very human story, I think – this is just my version of it. I feel that everybody goes through something like this. Everybody loses somebody. Everybody questions life.”
Graham adds, “To know that I’m saying things that connect with other people, that’s such a powerful thing. I want to be a relatable person that talks about things that can happen and give an opportunity for people to go, well you’re not alone. I want people to be able to listen to this record and hear that it comes from a place of raw emotion. The album is an opportunity to share my experience and move forward with my life.”
It’s The Long Goodbye‘s second and latest single “Designed To Lose” is a shimmering, propulsive and rousingly anthemic tune that’s anchored on an earnest reflection on the human condition, hinged on how we often seem doomed to lose in so many of our endeavors, including our capacity to cope with loss.