Album Review: Cigarettes After Sex, X’s

With 23 million monthly Spotify listeners, in addition to being an absolute behemoth on TikTok (6.4 billion plays and counting), Cigarettes After Sex’s brand of slowcore dream-pop is an indisputable weathervane of Gen Z’s cultural taste.

The stats are primarily driven by the band’s eponymous debut album – a record doused in a kind of ’50s/’60s ambience, sprinkled with the alt-country of Cowboy Junkies; and Cry, their sophomore record, which received kudos for its bleak, ethereal sheen, alongside some critical flak for its sex content.

X’s is set to maintain the band’s skyrocketing trajectory, because – contrary to bandleader Greg Gonzalez listing the Tejano music of his hometown El Paso as a touchstone – the slowcore vibes remain to the fore. Again, X’s emerged from the bleak aftermath of heartbreak, with Gonzalez recalling starkly intimate moments in piercing lyrical vignettes.

The record was first conceived on a rotten Valentine’s Day drive, whilst listening to the smooth jazz of Sade’s ‘By Your Side’ on repeat, with Gonzalez feeling the urge to create a record that sounded similar. The verdict? He’s realised that ambition superbly across a wonderfully tranquilising suite of music.

7/10