Do one thing and do it well, as the saying goes. Ignoring their atrocious name, Cigarettes After Sex successfully follow that maxim with their stubbornly unvaried, hazy-swooning noirish slow sex jams. The Brooklyn-based dream-pop band have millions of YouTube views to show for just a handful of singles and EP tracks, including a cover of REO Speedwagon’s Keep on Loving You. Quite an achievement for a still otherwise obscure indie band.
Equal parts Mazzy Star and The xx, their self-titled debut album is more reverb-treated shoegaze-y guitars, sighing keyboards and soft-focus vocals sung as if whispered in your ear by frontman Greg Gonzalez. His key preoccupation as a lyricist, on tracks like the sultry K and the almost uncomfortably intimate Sweet, is matters of the heart versus matters between the sheets. That plus Gonzalez’s gossamer way with a melody – case in point the ridiculously beautiful Apocalypse (“your lips my lips, apocalypse”) – make this one of the most intoxicating debuts of the year.
