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This week’s Mono Monday release is perhaps best known for being Ray Charles’ final offering during his tenure with Atlantic Records during the late 1950s and early 1960s, but while one might expect it to feel slightly schizophrenic, given that it features a dozen songs recorded during various sessions over the course of his time on the label, some of which are covers and some of which are originals, The Genius Sings the Blues is actually one of the strongest efforts from that era of Charles’s career. - Rhino Records 

On this day in 1959, Ray Charles recorded "What'd I Say." Improvised at the end of a concert (it would end up closing most of Charles' shows for the remainder of his career), the song became the performer's mainstream breakthrough and first gold record. The album of the same name features nine more stirring selections including “Jumpin' In The Morning,” “Tell Me How Do You Feel” and “Rockhouse, Parts 1 & 2.” With redoubtable saxophonist David Newman among the backing band, Brother Ray is at the top of his game and clearly reveling in it – WHAT'D I SAY truly is the birth of soul. - Rhino Records

Cigarettes After Sex mainman Greg Gonzalez's ability to set a scene and sustain a mood reels you in deeply. On album opener "K.", a tale of blossoming love etched in tiny details luxuriates over chiming guitars; on the hymn to romantic compulsion of "Each Time You Fall in Love," the suspended animation of Angelo Badalamenti's heart-stopping Twin Peaks music is echoed. "Sunsetz" and the gently lilting "Sweet," meanwhile, showcase Gonzalez's ability to weave impressionistic snapshots of romance into melodies that haunt like memories of past loves, all coalescing around his melting vocals.

Elsewhere, Gonzalez mounts movies in miniature with the photographic references of "Flash" and Fitzcarraldo echoes of "Opera House," a song so lovingly languid it could, conceivably, soundtrack a man hauling ships over mountains for love. And, just as every good film-maker knows the need for a killer finale, so Gonzalez closes the album with the retro-romantic swing and teasingly filthy put-downs of "Young & Dumb," which brings the album to a close with good, timeless advice: "Drive your car to the beach with the song on repeat...".

To mirror their woozy romanticism in music, Gonzalez rejected conventional studio routes for his band, which numbers Randy Miller on bass, Jacob Tomsky on drums and Phillip Tubbs on keyboards. Taking influence from The Cowboy Junkies' The Trinity Session (recorded in a church, single microphone), Cigarettes recorded most of the album in three days at the Sweatshop rehearsal space, Bushwick. The exception is "Each Time You Fall in Love," which was recorded in the Beekman's stairway after hours, the ghosts of screen lovers channeled in every warm note. Like the best movie, Cigarettes After Sex holds you in a hell of a spell. – Press Release

“Cigarettes After Sex’s sound is surprisingly muscular compared to their peers – the bass is loud, the interlocking guitar lines more clearly defined than the usual haze – but there’s no doubt where the focus is. It points up the other reason they seem one step ahead: their songs are stronger than anything else that’s been released in the same general area in recent years. They work in a sub-genre where atmosphere is often allowed to trump melody, but Gonzalez’s tunes are uniformly fabulous, to the point where it’s hard to pick out a highlight. Addictive, memorable and with the potential to reach an audience far wider than the cult following that normally awaits this kind of stuff, they’re the reason why an album where every track’s sonic components are more or less the same never feels monotonous or boring.” – The Guardian

“The pond-ripple guitars, jazzy cymbal taps, and misty keyboards heard throughout the self-titled debut album by Cigarettes After Sex will trigger Pavlovian chills in anyone with even a passing appreciation for Twin Peaks. Singer and mastermind Greg Gonzalez is certainly familiar with David Lynch, just as he’s well-versed in the work of slowcore heroes like Red House Painters and Mazzy Star. But what saves this El Paso-born, Brooklyn-based group from being just another trafficker of “Lynchian” indie-rock tropes is Gonzalez’s ability to capture moments and stretch them into lusty little pop daydreams.” – AV Club

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