The Crystal Ship / Anna Karenina

Description

An elegant double single that confirms the identity of Cigarettes After Sex. Cigarettes After Sex returned in October with a double single that highlighted both their future and their past. The B-side track, Anna Karenina, is an iconic piece from the band: sensual, slow-burning, and emotionally extravagant, with lyrics so confessional that they verge on excess. However, the integration of spoken word passages brings a new and striking dimension to Greg Gonzalez's universe, expanding the band's intimate palette. Its chorus ("I cried at the end of Anna Karenina, when she threw herself under the train") may be the most typically Cigarettes After Sex line ever written. The A-side is a fan favorite, long talked about and finally released: a beautifully faithful cover of The Crystal Ship by The Doors, reimagined in the band's characteristic sound haze. Jim Morrison's fatalistic romanticism has never seemed so fitting.