Album info
Album-Release:
2019
HRA-Release:
13.08.2021
Album including Album cover
- 1 Don't Let Me Go 04:23
- 2 Kiss It Off Me 04:30
- 3 Heavenly 04:47
- 4 You're the Only Good Thing In My Life 04:35
- 5 Touch 04:53
- 6 Hentai 04:45
- 7 Cry 04:17
- 8 Falling In Love 04:06
- 9 Pure 04:15
Info for Cry
That marriage of sound and setting is the heart and soul of Cry, Cigarettes After Sex’s riveting sophomore album. Recorded in a stunning house on the Spanish island of Mallorca, the collection reflects the uneasy beauty, erotic longing, and stark minimalism of the space, all smooth lines and soft light. Energized by the fresh palette and setting, Gonzalez would write songs just minutes before recording them with the band—drummer Jacob Tomsky, bassist Randy Miller, and keyboardist Phillip Tubbs. He engineered and produced the sessions himself, with an emphasis on capturing live performances and exploring the material together in dialogue with the house and with each other.
Clocking in at nine songs, Cry is a compact collection, but its brevity belies its depth. While the band’s sound may be most associated with the romantic pop music of the late 50’s and early 60’s, Gonzalez pushes into more unexpected sonic territory on Cry, reaching back to his childhood in El Paso, Texas, to draw subtle melodic influence from 90’s Tejano stars like Selena and mainstream pop country artists like Shania Twain. Gonzalez pushes himself lyrically on the album, too, tackling sex with the graphic frankness of Henry Miller or Leonard Cohen as he renders unabashed, sometimes explicitly erotic scenes with a casual candor. Writing with a filmmaker’s eye, he captures tiny moments with a rich, cinematic detail that manages to locate the profound within the mundane.
“I’ve always avoided studios,” says Cigarettes After Sex frontman Greg Gonzalez. “There’s something special about recording out in the world, some kind of X-factor that comes from the character and atmosphere of wherever it is that you’re working that becomes essential to the feeling of the music.”
Greg Gonzalez and his bandmates—drummer Jacob Tomsky, bassist Randy Miller, and keyboardist Phillip Tubbs—arrived in Mallorca to begin recording ‘Cry’ happened to be the very week that their long-awaited, self-titled debut LP hit shelves in 2017. Hailed by Vice as “an overnight internet sensation eight years in the making,” Gonzalez released that album on the heels of an EP and a series of singles that had managed to rack up millions of plays on YouTube and launch him from recording in the stairwell of his hometown university to headlining shows around the world. The full-length collection earned international raves out of the gate, with The Independent praising it as “intimate and spectral” and Pitchfork describing it as “restrained, low-boil…where tempo, repetition, and muted composition construct an entire story within the pauses between the notes and the ideas between the lines.” Nearly every review honed in on the romantic darkness of the music and the haunting androgyny of Gonzalez’s vocals, and the album was a fixture on roundups and year-end lists: Rolling Stone named Cigarettes After Sex an Artist You Need To Know, NPR listeners voted them one of the year’s top new discoveries, and The Guardian dubbed the band’s “noir dreampop” as “among 2017’s best.” In addition to being a critical smash, the record was also a streaming juggernaut, approaching one billion plays across all platforms and landing the band dates on five continents along with festival slots from Primavera and Best Kept Secret to Lollapalooza and Reading & Leeds.
Greg Gonzalez, vocals, guitar
Randall Miller, bass
Jacob Tomsky, drums
Phillip Tubbs, keyboards
Cigarettes After Sex
With their immaculately written songs, velvet vocals and perfect production they are fast becoming the next thing. Their name has spread through an online word of mouth campaign that has seen them go viral. Their debut single Nothing’s Gonna Hurt You Baby has been viewed over 31 million times while Affection has received a further 14 million.
The band was started by songwriter Greg Gonzalez in El Paso, Texas, during 2008 and has built their reputation through the millions of hits they’ve received through YouTube earning them worldwide recognition.
Multi-instrumentalist Gonzalez takes lead vocals and plays electric or acoustic guitars and occasionally bass. He is joined by drummer Jake Tomsky, Phillip Tubbs on electric guitars and keys plus bassist Randy Miller.
In 2012 they released their EP titled 1 which was recorded in a single night up and down the stairway of a four story building. It drew upon influences such as Cocteau Twins, Mazzy Star, Trinity Session, Red House Painters and the feel of early sixties records - “I Love You How You Love Me” was of particular importance in the creation of the record.
They have now relocated to Brooklyn, New York, and released the single Affection which was accompanied by a cover of REO Speedwagon’s massive hit Keep On Loving You.
Because Cigarettes After Sex concert tickets are limited we advise you book early to avoid missing out on seeing this essential band. Gigantic always has the greatest selection of essential gig tickets so stick with us for the very best experience.
This album contains no booklet.