Music

Album of the Week

Album of the Week: Cigarettes After Sex

Exploring the Texas trio’s cinematic second album, Cry

Find tickets here

Love has long been a go-to topic for musicians, songwriters and film-makers alike, but it’s not often tackled with such honesty and fascination.

Ambient pop act Cigarettes After Sex offer up their cinematic second album, Cry – which frontman Greg Gonzalez described as a film before its release – and it’s a sincere and brooding exploration of love across a variety of forms.

From passion, sexuality and beauty, to jealousy and heartbreak, the now New York-based trio elegantly riff on delicate dream-pop melodies while lyrically unleashing tales of complex characters, nostalgia, and of course, romance and tackling the many facets of love.

Touch - Cigarettes After Sex

The tracks are delicately sewn together to create a slow-burning, intimate collection which includes the atmospheric and ethereal single Heavenly.

Released through Partisan Records, Cry’s instrumentals were written shortly after the band’s 2017 self-titled debut, though the words took a little longer and were recorded later during night-time sessions in Mallorca.

Self-produced by the band, with mixing duties falling to Craig Silvey (Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, Arcade Fire), the result is delicate and minimalist, feeling quite different compared with its predecessor.

The hazy and melodic Falling in Love evokes romance and tenderness, in contrast to the blunt lyrics of Hentai, which explores fantasies with stark realism.

Album opener Don’t Let Me Go is gentle and dream-like and title track Cry feels nostalgic. The twinkling keys and delicate guitar riffs of album closer Pure seal the fate of this shimmering filmic release.

The soothing ambience and immaculate slow-burning delivery of their modern lullabies cement Cigarettes After Sex as 2019’s dream-pop darlings.


See Cigarettes After Sex live around the UK in November 2019 and March 2020. [Find tickets]


Tracklisting:

1. Don’t Let Me Go
2. Kiss It Off Me
3. Heavenly
4. You’re the Only Good Thing in My Life
5. Touch
6. Hentai
7. Cry
8.Falling in Love
9. Pure


Listen to Cry on Spotify: