''Cry'' is the second studio album by American
ambient pop
Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes Musical tone, tone and atmosphere over traditional Musical form, musical structure or rhythm. Often "peaceful" sounding and lacking Musical composition, composition, beat, and/or structured melod ...
band
Cigarettes After Sex, released through
Partisan Records
Partisan Records is an independent record label with offices in London, Berlin, and Los Angeles, as well as in New York City, where the company was co-founded in 2007 by Tim Putnam and Ian Wheeler. The label, initially run out of Putnam's South B ...
on October 25, 2019. It was preceded by the single "Heavenly".
Background
Frontman
Greg Gonzalez said: "We made
'Cry''to just be a snapshot of a moment, to capture the feeling of something. And it's flawed, but the fact that it's flawed means that it's an honest portrayal. And that's what is perfect about it to me."
Gonzalez also remarked that he views the album as a "film" as it was "shot in this stunning, exotic location
Mallorca
Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.
The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...
, and it stitches all these different characters and scenes together, but in the end is really about romance, beauty & sexuality."
Elaborating on the band's style, Gonzalez said that after experiencing heartbreak, the music he needed was "very gentle" and "very peaceful, because internally I was going through such turmoil. The music that I make became a reaction to the life that happened."
Gonzalez wrote "Falling in Love" over two years. He states, "I wrote the chorus in the middle of a bunch of tours, very far from love or real relationships, and trying to write that song would've felt dishonest. By the time we got into the studio, I was seeing my current girlfriend and wrote from a real perspective. It felt very strange, in a way, to finally have that."
Critical reception
Alisha Mughal of ''
Exclaim!
''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly ''Exclaim!'' print magazine publishes seven ...
'' called the album a "gentler and more vulnerable" than the band's debut album, and writing that the album "will make you cry, because Gonzalez knows what he's doing. It's cathartic, stunning, it'll awaken your senses and it's not to be missed."
On the other hand Timothy Monger of
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
stated that "for a project based on amorous and sensual pleasures, Cigarettes After Sex feels a little too one-dimensional".
Year-end rankings
Track listing
Personnel
Cigarettes After Sex
*
Greg Gonzalez – vocals, guitar
* Randall Miller – bass
* Jacob Tomsky – drums
* Phillip Tubbs – keyboards
Production
* Greg Gonzalez – production
* Craig Silvey – mixing
* Max Prior – additional engineering
* Greg Calbi – mastering
Artwork
* Randall Miller – graphic design
* Donovan Brien – additional packaging design
* Alessandro Puccinelli – cover photo (''Mare 345 – Seascape'')
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
References
{{Authority control
2019 albums
Cigarettes After Sex albums
Partisan Records albums