Yet Cursive's latest record, 'Devourer', is all these things and more. At turns, it's the heaviest thing they've ever released – take single 'Botch Job' or the juddering 'What the Fuck’ – yet it also contains their most accessible songs to date, too, as well as some of their weirdest and most elegant. Some, like standouts 'Consumers' and 'The Age of Impotence', are every bit as genre-defying as Cursive would like. Mission accomplished then, so to speak.

Of course, Cursive – completed by a menagerie of personalities including bassist Matt Maginn, guitarist Ted Stevens, founding drummer Clint Schnase, cellist Megan Siebe, multi-instrumentalist Patrick Newbery and touring drummer Pat Oakes – wouldn't be Cursive if there wasn't some sort of theme. Now a scriptwriter and filmmaker, too, it's little surprise that Tim is a voracious and avid consumer of media. This idea of swallowing media – devouring it, so to speak – is the thematic starting point on an album that dips into imperialism, immediacy and disposability, artistry and commercialism. It's also another chance for Tim to once again turn the lens inwards and break the fourth wall.

On 'Art Is Hard', the group's breakout, he acerbically wrote of the trials and tribulations of being an artist, delivering a slew of self-aware lyrics which critiqued the songwriting process in the context of break-up breakout 'Domestica'. Highlights abound, including: "Well, here we go again, the art of acting weak, fall in love to fail, to boost your CD sales" and "If at first you don't succeed, you gotta recreate your misery." This time, on 'Imposturing', he's even more pointedly criticising the process, approaching the subject of songwriting from the perspective of someone with a lifetime's experience behind them. "No one wants to listen to sins regurgitated on coloured wax again. You played your best cards when you were young and insolent."

It's a remarkable inside joke that's been running for the best part of 20 years, and similar examples can be found scattered throughout their body of work.