Last Updated on 2025-11-08 by a-indie
Cigarettes After Sex “Anna Karenina” Analysis
The protagonist in this song is someone living with secrets.
The opening confesses never revealing where they go, what they do, or who they were with, bringing the nature of this hidden relationship into sharp relief.
However, this love also comes with intense bondage. Phrases like “can’t escape anymore” and “will never be free” depict a prison called love—something sweet yet painful.
This can be said to be a modern translation of Anna Karenina’s experience of social isolation and internal anguish.
What are “Suicide Dreams”?
The intense phrase “suicide dreams” in the lyrics symbolizes the destructive aspect of this love.
It represents not only a literal death wish but also social death, the extinction of self, or the abandonment of reason.
What Anna Karenina experienced was precisely this “death in life.”
Escaping from a marriage in name only with her husband Karenin, she threw herself into a passionate love with Vronsky, was expelled from high society, denied access to her son, and was mentally driven to the edge.
What she ultimately chose was to throw herself in front of a train—a symbol of modernization.
The “suicide dreams” in this song depict the helplessness of knowing that the one you love wanders in this dangerous territory, yet being unable to stop them.
The line “You knew that I was yours” suggests a complicity between the one walking the path of destruction and the one watching.
What is “Deep and Painful Love”?
The phrase “It was a deep and painful love” is the core of this song. Love is typically thought to bring joy and happiness, but the love depicted here brings pain the deeper it becomes.
It’s love that transcends social norms, love that crosses moral boundaries, love that sacrifices the self.
As Anna experienced, such love breeds loneliness, jealousy, and despair. Yet at the same time, it is also the purest, most passionate, and most truthful love.
The repetition “I’ll never be free anymore, free…” expresses the perpetual bondage this love possesses.
Once you know this love, you can never return to who you were before. There is something gained by losing freedom.
A Soundscape Depicting Quiet Destruction
The soundscape of “Anna Karenina” deserves special mention. Cigarettes After Sex’s characteristic hazy guitar, minimal drums, and whispered vocals are fully displayed here.
However, the newly introduced spoken word section creates a tension different from their previous works.
The secrets and confessions told in a narrative tone draw the listener into the story.
It feels like a monologue in an intimate space while maintaining the distance of an observer.
In contrast to the gloomy, self-destructive world the lyrics depict, the melody is beautiful and even dreamy.
This sonic beauty expresses the glimmer of pure affection that certainly exists within the tragic story.
“Anna Karenina” is not merely a love song. It is a literary piece depicting fundamental human contradictions: love and destruction, freedom and bondage, beauty and pain.
This requiem dedicated to Tolstoy’s masterpiece poses to us listeners a universal theme that remains relevant in the modern age.
Cigarettes After Sex Release Information
“Anna Karenina , The Crystal Ship”
Release Date: October 22, 2025
Label: Partisan Records
Track List:
- The Crystal Ship (The Doors cover)
- Anna Karenina
X’s (2024)
Release Date: July 12, 2024
Label: Partisan Records
Track List:
- X’s
- Tejano Blue
- Hot
- Silver Sable
- Dreams From Bunker Hill
- Baby Blue Movie
- Holding You, Holding Me
- Dark Vacay
- Ambien Slide
- Hideaway
Cigarettes After Sex Profile
A dream pop, ambient pop band formed in El Paso, Texas, USA in 2008, centered around frontman Greg Gonzalez. Their 2017 debut album Cigarettes After Sex achieved worldwide success, with “Apocalypse” surpassing 2 billion streams on Spotify. During the X’s tour, they sold over 750,000 tickets worldwide, with sold-out performances at Madison Square Garden, The O2 Arena, Kia Forum, and arenas throughout Asia. Currently, they have over 30 million monthly listeners. Members are Greg Gonzalez (Vo., Gt.), Jacob Tomsky (Dr.), and Randall Miller (Ba.).
Writer: Tomohiro Yabe (yabori)
Editor-in-Chief of BELONG Media, A-indie. Since 2010, has been writing the music blog “Timeless Masterpieces,” which became the predecessor to BELONG.
After writing for “only in dreams,” hosted by Masafumi Gotoh, vocalist of ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, he majored in music business at a music vocational school.
Over 10 years, he has written articles about Japanese and international music.
Previously worked at a music CD rental shop with over 100,000 album titles, handling garage rock, psychedelic rock, and Japanese indie rock.
Leveraging these experiences, he has published 26 issues of the music magazine “BELONG Magazine” themed around “roots rock.”
Currently writes articles based on SEO strategies learned at a web production company. His hobby is watching “Kaiun! Nandemo Kantei-dan.”
Articles written so far are here
Twitter: @boriboriyabori
- is a music media platform run by BELONG, a Japanese music organization. We publish music articles with a focus on indie music.