– Cigarettes After Sex – X’s Perfectly befitting the band’s name, this third album packs 10 hushed, hazy songs of love, loss and – yes – sex made for late-night headphones moments. Addressing a four-year relationship which ended shortly before the album’s recording, frontman Greg Gonzalez brings both the euphoria and the heartbreak vividly to life through his unflinching lyrics and seductive, androgynous vocals. Whether troubled like Dark Vacay and Ambien Slide or dreamy like Silver Sable, Hideaway or Dreams From Bunker Hill, each track provides a window into Gonzalez’s soul.
The latter is actually a lament to the lost love in question and “when everything was beautiful with us”, while Hot truly brings the different strands together: “I keep getting scared that I’ll always be lost forever/ But I don’t give a s***, if I’m too delicate, when you hold me it’s always better.” The band are already a TikTok phenomenon with an established worldwide following and X’s shapes up to further cement their appeal. Score: 9/10 (Review by Tom White) – Marc Almond – I’m Not Anyone I’m Not Anyone is Marc Almond’s latest solo release, a compilation of 11 covers of classic songs, which are thoughtful, charismatic and impressive without straying too far from any original renditions.
The record is gentle, uplifting – using choral sounds on tracks like I’m The Light and I Talk to The Wind to form an otherworldly, dreamy collective of interpretations f.
