Cigarettes After Sex: X's (deluxe edition) [PARTISAN]

Why you'll love it

This deluxe edition comes in a silver foil gatefold sleeve with a lyric and photo book. X's reached No. 12 in the UK and No. 32 on the Billboard 200, the band's highest US chart placing.

This edition

• Deluxe edition
• Lyric & photo book
• Silver foil gatefold jacket
• Pressed in the USA

About the album

Greg Gonzalez has built a career on making heartbreak sound gorgeous. For X's he went straight to the source, writing a whole album from his own life and recording it in Los Angeles between August 2020 and February 2022, producing it himself as always.

As one of today's big indie bands, Cigarettes After Sex takes the spotlight with their 2024 album X's. With songs like the lead single "Tejano Blue," X's concentrates on a relationship that spanned four years, where some of their earlier albums drew their inspiration from further afield. With romantic lyrics and an ambience of hazy melodies, the album is everything its fans could ask for. "Tejano Blue" draws on Gonzalez's hometown of El Paso, Texas, with nods to Selena and Cocteau Twins, "Dark Vacay" recalls a romance that unravelled on a trip through Europe, and "Baby Blue Movie" and "Ambien Slide" float by on the band's trademark reverb.

Gonzalez has said the sound was inspired by the slow-dance pop ballads of the 70s and 80s, and Clash called it the band's most consistent album. Best enjoyed with the lights low; we tried it under the shop fluorescents and it still worked, which is a fairly strong endorsement.

Also at Kops: more Cigarettes After Sex on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Partisan / Spanish Prayers (cat# PTKF3035-8), the 2024 album.