Cigarettes After Sex

Cigarettes After Sex built a wide audience around “Nothing’s Gonna Hurt You Baby,” a song from their 2012 debut EP I. that later became a sleeper hit through commercial licensing. Formed in El Paso, Texas, in 2008 by songwriter Greg Gonzalez, the American band works in a hushed, dream-like space between dream pop, ambient pop, shoegaze, slowcore and indie rock.

Gonzalez’s androgynous voice is central to the group’s sound, alongside lyrics that return to love, romance and limerence. The band’s recordings are often marketed as ambient pop, but their restrained tempos, hazy textures and guitar-based arrangements have also placed them within shoegaze and slowcore conversations.

Following I., Cigarettes After Sex released the standalone single “Affection” in 2015. Their self-titled debut studio album arrived in 2017 to positive reviews, followed by Cry in 2019. The band released its third studio album, X’s, in July 2024.