Cigarettes After Sex's music may feel as wispy as a fading memory, but it's also surprisingly enduring. Equal parts afterglow and aftermath, the romantic haze
Greg Gonzalez and company create barely changed between 2012's debut EP
I. and 2019's sophomore album
Cry. On
X's, the tweaks are subtle. Though hearts might skip a beat or two faster on "Holding You, Holding Me" and "Baby Blue Movie," and there's slightly less fog surrounding "Silver Sable," like the albums before it, the band's first full-length in five years plays like an extended dream. Throughout
X's,
Gonzalez makes gentle allusions to soft rock and Tejano, using the latter to add color -- literally -- to "Tejano Blue"'s bittersweet recollections of his days in El Paso. Even when these influences are more prominent, like the precisely swinging bassline borrowed from Tejano on "Ambien Slide," they never overpower the minimalist melodrama that is still
Cigarettes After Sex's greatest strength. Like
the xx, they're experts at using space and whispers to channel echoes of lost love. "X's" adds a sweetness to its montage of romantic and erotic memories that makes it one of the band's quintessential songs (there isn't a better mission statement of what they do than "dreaming with a filthy heart"). They're just as gifted at capturing the moments where doubt threatens to overpower love on songs like "Hot," where
Gonzalez wonders if "I'll always be lost forever." While plain-spoken lyrics like these make it easy for listeners to place themselves in
Cigarettes After Sex's heartbroken vignettes,
X's frequently feels like some of their most personal work. Written in the wake of a long-term relationship's end, songs such as "Hideaway" and "Dreams from Bunker Hill" have a tear-stained amount of detail that fleshes them out more than much of the band's music. The album's biggest development comes when
Gonzalez sings "If time doesn't heal/You'll never feel that good again" on "Ambien Slide," suggesting that the group just might be ready to step away from heartbreak at some point. It may not change the minds of those who think there isn't much to
Cigarettes After Sex's music, but
X's delivers enough glamorous brooding to keep fans happily miserable. ~ Heather Phares
