The ever-prolific Cigarettes After Sex cap off a year of remarkable achievements – including surpassing 7 billion total streams across all platforms and selling out their biggest tour to date, which included the Forest Hills stadium of a capacity of 13,000 people in New York – with the release of their transcendent version of Radiohead’s underrated Kid A track, “Motion Picture Soundtrack”.
Their version of the track colors Radiohead’s dystopian meditation on death and the afterlife with a touch of the gauzy, romantic dream-pop that has become Cigarettes After Sex’s signature.
As conductor Greg Gonzalez wrote:
“I first heard a version of this song that was just solo vocals and guitar, recorded live at a concert in 1997. I love the way they transformed it to the final song they composed years later, but there was something about the simplicity of that original, stripped-down recording that always stood out to me. I wanted our version to try to capture that feeling in a way or another and focuses on the beautiful sadness and romance I heard in the lyrics. We actually recorded it in 2015, the same day as “Affection” and our covers of “Keep On Loving You ” and “Neon Moon”, but somehow it didn’t quite feel right to release it until now. Fortunately, the song has become more personal to me over the years and I’m really happy it’s finally coming out…”
Listen to the “Original Motion Picture Soundtrack” – BELOW:
Earlier this year, Cigarettes After Sex released two original singles titled “Bubblegum” and “Stop Waiting.” As seen in both tracks, the syrupy, sultry, subterranean dream-pop clashes with bandleader Greg Gonzalez’s vocals as they walk the subtle line between singing and whispering. The songs are a perfect distillation of the star-studded atmosphere the band has claimed as their signature in the six years since the release of their globally successful self-titled debut album.
Behind billions of streams and hit singles, Cigarettes After Sex continues to challenge what it means to be one of the biggest cult acts in the world. Five years after the release of their self-titled debut album (which also re-entered the Top 200 worldwide charts this year and, last week, went Platinum in the US) and their acclaimed follow-up Cry (2019), they recently seen several viral moments on TikTok unlock new levels of audience growth and album sales. For example, this month their track “Apocalypse” was streamed over a billion times on Spotify alone. With over 8.8 million followers and 20 million monthly listeners and growing, they are also currently the 305th most streamed artist on Spotify.
