Cigarettes After Sex will return with their anticipated second album Cry on October 25th via Partisan Records. Recorded during night time sessions in a mansion on the Spanish island of Mallorca, the album is a lush, cinematic meditation on the many complex facets of love – meeting, wanting, needing, losing… sometimes all at once. Listen to album highlight “Heavenly” now.
Earlier today, “Heavenly” was featured as Annie Mac’s ‘Hottest Record’ on her BBC Radio 1 show, and also had a first play on Sirius XMU in the US. Frontman/guitarist Greg Gonzalez describes the song as “inspired by the overwhelming beauty I felt watching an endless sunset on a secluded beach in Latvia one summer night…”
Cigarettes After Sex today also announce a brand new run of tour dates across the UK and Europe for March and April 2020, including a stop at London’s Hammersmith Apollo. Tickets went on general sale at 9 am on Wednesday 4th September. The new dates follow a global headline tour this autumn, that includes UK shows at Albert Hall, Manchester on 27 November and an already sold out Shepherds Bush Empire the following night. Full routing below.
After decamping to Mallorca the same week that their self-titled minimalist pop masterwork debut was released in 2017, Gonzalez and his bandmates – Jacob Tomsky (drums) & Randy Miller (bass) – consciously let the striking location guide the initial Cry sessions.
The sound of this record is completely tied to the location for me. Ultimately, I view this record as a film. It was shot in this stunning, exotic location, and it stitches all these different characters and scenes together, but in the end is really about romance, beauty & sexuality. It’s a very personal telling of what those things mean to me.
~ Greg Gonzalez
While the music came quickly – often improvised on the spot – it would be another two years before Gonzalez would attempt to complete the accompanying lyrics. Helped by the burgeoning love of a new relationship, the influence of films by Éric Rohmer, and the songs of Selena and Shania Twain among others, Cry blends the carnal subtlety of their debut with a warmer palette. The album was self-produced and engineered by Gonzalez, and mixed by Craig Silvey (Arcade Fire, Yeah Yeah Yeahs).
Cigarettes After Sex’s self-titled debut has sold over 550k records to date (streaming equivalent), amassing over 360 million Spotify streams, 2.2 million monthly listeners, and 350 million YouTube streams.
23/3/20 – Bristol, UK – Academy
24/3/20 – London, UK – Hammersmith Apollo
25/3/20 – Birmingham, UK – Institute
27/3/20 – Leeds, UK – University
28/3/20 – Glasgow – Barrowland
29/3/20 – Liverpool, UK – Academy