Cavetown, the long running project of UK born artist Robin Skinner, has released his new album Running With Scissors, out now via Futures Music Group and Virgin Music Group. The record arrives as a defining chapter in Skinner’s evolution, expanding the intimate bedroom pop foundations that first drew listeners to his work into a broader, more confrontational and emotionally layered statement about adulthood, responsibility and self definition.
Written after an intense two year period of personal healing, Running With Scissors documents a moment of transition. Skinner was navigating two major life changes, falling in love with a partner he wants to build a future with and the arrival of his youngest sibling, born 26 years after him. Together, those experiences prompted a deep reckoning with family history, masculinity and the idea of reparenting yourself, deciding which emotional patterns are carried forward and which are deliberately cut away.
The album’s release is accompanied by the new single and music video Cryptid, a centrepiece that captures both the personal and political dimensions of the record. The short film imagines a hidden underground world where “cryptids” live in secrecy, pushed aside by a society that fears what it does not understand. While the imagery draws directly from Skinner’s lived experience as a transgender person during a period of heightened threats to trans visibility and safety, the symbolism reaches further, reflecting how many marginalised communities have historically been labelled as other.
Musically, Running With Scissors stretches Cavetown’s sonic palette. Hyper pop textures, distorted guitars and electronic grit sit alongside the soft dream pop tones that have defined Skinner’s catalogue since his early Bandcamp releases as a teenager in Cambridge. The album opens with Skip, a buoyant and openly joyful love song that captures the rare calm of feeling safe with another person. Its final notes bleed directly into Cryptid, framing love and anger as forces that coexist rather than cancel each other out.
Across the tracklist, Skinner explores intimacy, burnout, dissociation and survival with increasing clarity. Rainbow Gal filters closeness through distance using shimmering 8 bit details, while Baby Spoon reframes masculinity through tenderness and care. Songs such as NPC, Reaper and Straight Through My Head (DO IT!!!) confront exhaustion and intrusive thoughts shaped by constant movement and public visibility. No Bark, No Bite and Micah turn inward, examining family, inheritance and the kind of sibling and adult Skinner hopes to be.
For the first time in his career, Skinner opened the creative process to a broader group of collaborators. Contributions from Chloe Moriondo, Underscores, Ryan Raines, David Pramik and Couros expand the album’s sound without diluting its emotional focus, marking a significant creative milestone for an artist long associated with solitary home recordings.
The closing title track Running With Scissors distils the album’s core metaphor, adulthood as risk, imbalance and momentum. It captures the tension between fear and exhilaration that runs through the record, acknowledging uncertainty while continuing forward regardless.
Beyond the music, Cavetown’s role as a community figure remains central. Skinner’s This Is Home Project, an LGBTQ+ youth initiative supporting housing, mental health services, creative programs and crisis care, has raised more than $700,000 for organisations assisting queer young people. That ethic of responsibility and advocacy is woven throughout Running With Scissors, reinforcing Skinner’s growth as both an artist and a person.
Australian audiences will experience this new era in February when Cavetown returns for Laneway Festival appearances alongside headline theatre shows in Sydney and Melbourne. The live performances promise to bring the album’s themes of growth, connection and emotional honesty into shared spaces with fans who have grown up alongside the music.
With Running With Scissors, Cavetown steps fully into adulthood without severing the bond formed over more than a decade of deeply personal songwriting. It is a record that acknowledges risk, embraces vulnerability and invites listeners to keep moving forward together.
CAVETOWN RUNNING WITH SCISSORS AU TOUR
Presented by Handsome Tours, Laneway Presents and triple j
Wed 11 Feb, Sydney, Enmore Theatre
Thu 12 Feb, Melbourne, Palais Theatre
Also appearing at Laneway Festival
Tickets via handsometours.com
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