Cigarettes After Sex

The name that Texas native Greg Gonzalez chose for his band doubles as a pink-neon advertisement for their dream-pop lullabies: carnal, nocturnal and suffused with a thick haze. But while Cigarettes After Sex seem like a band magically birthed from the darkest recesses of David Lynch’s imagination, they began in 2008 as a recording project spearheaded by Gonzalez while he was studying at the University of Texas at El Paso. And their presence remained as shadowy as their music until—much to the band’s surprise and bewilderment—the 2015 single “Affection” suddenly began racking up tens of millions of hits online. Looking back upon that viral success with Apple Music, Gonzalez quipped, “I’m sure the band name had something to do with getting in that loop.” But if his group first broke through by winning the algorithm lottery, Cigarettes After Sex’s 2017 self-titled album and its 2019 follow-up, Cry, expanded that audience through Gonzalez’s growing repertoire of beautifully enigmatic, sexually charged songcraft, the allure of which is amplified by his uncanny, androgynous voice. But, as Gonzalez sees it, there’s no real mystery as to why this band has struck such a deep emotional chord with listeners around the world. “The songs are written in a very pop way in my mind, recalling some of the biggest hits that I love,” he says. “We just have this framing like Mazzy Star and Red House Painters that makes it sound more modern.”