After Passion

After a slow start, Cigarettes After Sex saw their fortunes swiftly reversed by a whirlwind of YouTube hits. Although they formed in 2008, CAS waited nearly a decade to release their debut record, and rather fittingly it unfolds at a lethargic pace. The music that Greg Gonzales and his fellow bandmates produce is slowcore in the extreme. The shimmering guitars, placid percussion, and wistfully delivered vocals also reveal their debt to dream pop and shoegaze. More than anything, early supporters of the band have praised Gonzales' unashamed sentimentality and dyed-in-the-wool romanticism. You don't have to venture beyond the opening track to experience his hazy passion.

Few British guitarists have given themselves to the blues with the same tenacity and perseverance as Alvin Lee. What to many of his generation was still a received method, to Lee was an organically absorbed culture he completely assimilated in. And what others have later began moving away from – be it toward hard rock, pop, or jazz fusion – to him has always remained a constant source of self-fulfillment…