Cigarettes for Breakfast – Wait (2021)
Many people don’t consider what an argument between parents is like from the child’s perspective. Cigarettes for Breakfast are not most people and are taking this on with their dual single release Wait. Through the two interlinked tracks, you are taken through the dreamlike quality of parents arguing drawn through the piecemeal memories of childhood nostalgia.
This look at parental arguments and child perceptions comes from Matt Whiteford (vocals, guitar), Donnie CoCo (vocals, bass), Cameron Kynett (vocals, guitar), Chris Doyle (guitar) and Tony Rossi (drums). The band was founded by Whiteford in 2019 and have released an EP and album which gained the band support locally and abroad. Drawing on 90s alternative rock sounds, they add a hint of shoegaze and post-rock for the dreamy sound of this EP.
‘I Thought I Was Transforming into a Butterfly but I Am Yet Another Moth to the Flame’ works as an introduction to the second track on the EP. The music that opens the track has a wavy feeling as it laps against your ears and sends you into a dreamy soundscape. The ambient layer over the melody makes everything below it feel like it is coming through a heavy haze that softens the edges. The guitars that come in later have a grounding vibe that pulls you through the haziness but there is still a touch of dreaminess to them. This combines with a nostalgic edge that stays even when the harder rock sounds come in for a light crash of arguments. The instrumentation on this track is emotive and a wonderful setting of the stage for what comes next.
‘Wait’ crashes into existence with a touch of the nostalgic haze from the opening track. The duet vocals harmonise from the first moment they enter adding to the haziness of the song. The lyrics offer snippets of memories as they fill you with nostalgia tinged with bleak feelings. It is an interesting track as it offers the lightness of hazy memories but brings everything down with the pain of bad experiences. The guitars that crash through the dreamy tones act as a sonic darkness while the vocals overlap with the two sides of an argument.
Cigarettes for Breakfast wash memories of parents arguing with a dreamy brush tinged with the blackness of bad experiences in the dual single release Wait. The first track sets the dreamy scene with touches of nostalgia in an instrumental soundscape. The overlapping vocals and crashing guitars of ‘Wait’ capture the feeling of watching an argument while the haziness over it brings the nostalgia of memories.
Find out more about Cigarettes for Breakfast on their Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.
