Cigarettes After Sex announce details of their new album, titled X’s. The album is preceded by the lead single “Tejano Blue,” now available via Partisan Records.

Filled with raw, imagistic vignettes set to entrancing, slow-burn pop songs, bandleader Greg Gonzalez captures every emotion a romantic arc inspires. But where previous albums have drawn from an amalgam of relationships, for the most part, ‘X’s’ centralises on just one relationship that spanned four years.

“The record feels brutal,” admits singer Greg Gonzalez. “I could sit and talk about this loss to someone, but that wouldn’t scratch the surface. I have to really write about it, sing about it, have the music, and then I can start to analyse and learn from it. Or just relive it—in a good way. I don’t have that Eternal Sunshine-thing of wanting to forget.”

While continuing to observe classic pop song structures, Gonzalez has moved away from the prior sonic touchstones of the ‘50s and ‘60s, finding himself now drawn to a ‘70s/’80s slow dance. While (in typical Cigarettes style) these changes may be subtle, the overall resulting energy is akin to disco ball-refracted tears on the dance floor.

“Tejano Blue”, a nod to the music of bandleader Greg Gonzalez’s Texas childhood:

Gonzalez explains:

“I grew up in El Paso & Tejano music is huge there. You could go to a lot of the bars in the city and hear artists like Selena, Los Ángeles Azules & La Mafia playing over the speakers. It was in the atmosphere around me back then, but I always rejected it and gravitated towards anything else I was attracted to really.

“Years later when I was living in New York City I finally started listening to Selena’s ‘Como La Flor’ at the same time that I was also listening to a lot of Cocteau Twins. I had the idea then to try to combine both of their sounds somehow, which felt a bit strange, but also felt like it was coming from a genuine place of rediscovering & finally connecting with the music that I heard around me in my youth.”

Cigarettes After Sex
X’s’
Tracklisting

1. X’s
2. Tejano Blue
3. Silver Sable
4. Hideaway
5. Holding you, Holding me
6. Dark Vacay
7. Baby Blue Movie
8. Hot
9. Dreams From Bunker Hill
10. Ambien Slide

Order X’s by Cigarettes After Sex HERE