Cry [Deluxe Edition]

by Cigarettes After Sex

Overview

The sleepy, ambient pop of Brooklyn's Cigarettes After Sex found an unexpected flush of viral success in 2016 when the group's already four-year-old song, "Nothing's Gonna Hurt You Baby," started putting up massive eight-digit streaming numbers on YouTube. The project of Texas native Greg Gonzalez, Cigarettes After Sex's noir-ish imagery and languid odes to romantic obsession made them seem unlikely candidates for such contemporary pop culture peaks, but the song and subsequent 2017 debut album nonetheless found a very receptive audience. Although the band's roots stretch back to 2008, their follow-up, Cry, is only their second full-length release and it follows more or less in the faded glamour of its predecessor. Like a method actor slipping easily into character, Gonzalez took his sensual slowcore to sea, renting a mansion on the Spanish Balearic island of Mallorca as his next studio. With the gently hissing surf-and-sun-baked limestone cliffs as their backdrop, he and bandmates Randall Miller (bass), Phillip Tubbs (keyboards), and Jacob Tomsky (drums) recorded nine gentle, often improvised pieces of music to which Gonzalez added lyrics at a later date. Cry is nothing if not cinematic and, as its creator has indicated, is indelibly linked to its place of origin. Listening to the opioid strains of "Don't Let Me Go" or "You're the Only Good Thing in My Life," it's easy to picture the lovelorn indie playboy gazing wistfully from a marbled balcony out into the sea's infinite expanse. As a writer, Gonzalez cites Richard Brautigan and Leonard Cohen as influences, though his references to Japanese animated porn ("Hentai") and "all of those rich fuckboys" ("Kiss It Off Me") feel purely millennial. Musically, the song structures are uncomplicated and rely heavily on lush textures and mood-setting (foreplay, essentially) which is what Cigarettes After Sex seem to do best. ~ Timothy Monger

Product Details

Release Date:	04/10/2020
Label:	Partisan
UPC:	0720841217381
Rank:	24536

Tracks

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

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Cigarettes After Sex   Primary Artist
Randall Miller   Bass
Jacob Tomsky   Drums
Phillip Tubbs   Keyboards
Greg Gonzalez   Guitar,Vocals

Technical Credits

Craig Silvey   Mixing
Greg Calbi   Mastering
Randall Miller   Graphic Design
Max Prior   Engineer
Donovan Brien   Package Design
Alessandro Puccinelli   Cover Photo
Greg Gonzalez   Composer,Producer