You would name “Twizzler” the sound of Cigarettes After Intercourse smiling. Not fairly a smile. Extra a smirk.
The one dropped Might 19, 2026, distributed by Virgin Music Group. It’s a standalone launch, their first new music of the yr, following 2025’s “Anna Karenina.” The track dates again to the X’s periods from 2024 however the band couldn’t end it till now. Greg Gonzalez produced it. Craig Silvey combined it.
Intercourse, medication, and an LA night time that felt like a film on the time however most likely seems completely different now.
Gonzalez confirmed this on KROQ. True story. A romance from that interval. You’ll be able to hear the geography within the lyrics. The Normal West, a lodge that closed in 2021. The Cinerama Dome, which closed through the pandemic and by no means reopened. The Crescent Suite. These are usually not random particulars. They’re coordinates. The track is a map of an evening that now not exists bodily, solely chemically, in reminiscence. You can’t return to a spot that’s gone. You’ll be able to solely keep in mind what it felt prefer to be excessive inside it.
The title comes from the sweet. Twizzlers. The crimson licorice twists. However the metaphor is doing extra work than simply “mouths twisting collectively throughout a kiss.” A Twizzler is synthetic. Brilliant crimson, sugar pretending to be one thing actual. There’s something there concerning the relationship itself. Intense, colourful, in the end not nourishing. You eat a complete pack and really feel bizarre after. The track has that high quality. It leaves an odd aftertaste.
The opening verse units the scene on a rooftop. “You caught me observing your moon necklace / Cracking a white tablet that I watched you drop in your tongue.”
Moon necklace. White tablet. The imagery is loaded however intentionally blunt. Gonzalez will not be making an attempt to impress you with poetry. He’s describing precisely what he noticed. He was too excessive to decorate it up.
“I took the molly with a Capri-Solar.” A juice field. A drug for adults washed down with a drink for youngsters. That pressure runs by way of the entire monitor. Grownup conditions, adolescent vulnerability. “Fell up and doing and take me on the ground.” The grammar is off. No previous tense. Simply the reminiscence occurring once more in actual time.
The refrain is straightforward. “I like the best way you made me really feel / And I don’t care why, no, I don’t care why.”
Repeat that line sufficient instances and it begins to sound much less like affection and extra like dependancy. The repetition itself turns into the purpose. The way in which the phrase loops again round mirrors the best way the night time retains replaying in his head. He doesn’t miss the individual. He misses the sensation the individual gave him. There’s a distinction. The track is aware of this. It simply won’t admit it instantly.
“Lips do a Twizzler in the summertime solar / Outdoors within the Cinerama Dome.” The Dome is a landmark. A curved concrete movie show on Sundown. However they’re exterior it, not inside. Watching a film from the parking zone. Near one thing iconic however not truly in it.
That is essentially the most upbeat factor they’ve recorded, which is relative. Upbeat for Cigarettes After Intercourse nonetheless means gradual by regular requirements. The drums have a bounce. The bass doesn’t simply hover, it truly strikes. Randall Miller performs a line that walks someplace as a substitute of simply sitting within the pocket. The track feels much less like floating and extra like stumbling ahead.
Gonzalez stated in that KROQ interview that the band initially sounded extra like Erasure or Pet Store Boys. Brilliant 80s pop. That DNA continues to be in there, buried beneath the reverb. “Twizzler” is the closest they’ve come to letting it out. His vocal supply additionally sits in a different way. Much less of the mournful whisper that outlined albums like Cry. Nearer to a spoken reminiscence, informal in a method that just about feels harmful. He’s not singing at you. He’s telling you one thing whereas wanting on the flooring.
The track sits aside from their older work. Much less emotionally heavy. Much less narcotised. The band lately entered the High 200 most streamed artists on Spotify. “Apocalypse” handed two billion streams. They’re one in all solely eleven bands with 4 songs over one billion. Fleetwood Mac, AC/DC, Queen territory. They will afford to launch a leftover from an outdated session. They don’t want one other “Apocalypse.”
“Twizzler” will not be aiming for that. It’s smaller. Extra particular. A polaroid from an evening that mattered to precisely two individuals. That’s sufficient.
Finest listened to late. Home windows down. Someplace between the Strip and the 101.
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