(photo credit: Emily Dubin )
Diet Cig have released their new album, Do You Wonder About Me? today, May 1, via Frenchkiss. Stream/buy the album here.
Diet Cig - Alex Luciano and Noah Bowman - have been compared to tornadoes, firecrackers, and lightning storms, and described as genuine, unapologetic, and down-to-earth. Do You Wonder About Me? is the follow-up to 2017’s critically acclaimed Swear I’m Good At This. The new record marks a more intentional, self-assured Diet Cig; not only in Luciano’s radically intimate, acerbic lyrics, but in the duo’s sound as well. Luciano and Bowman moved to Richmond, VA in the summer of 2017 as a place to “hide out and make music,” and it was there that they wrote Do You Wonder About Me?, Diet Cig’s ode to growing up.
Leading to release the band have shared 3 singles, the lead single “Who Are You?”, “Thriving” and “Night Terrors” to widespread critical acclaim including NPR’s “All Songs” broadcast. All landed on multiple “best of the week” lists around release.
“the sweet clarity of her voice riding verses that seethe and rumble with a ferocity that harks back to the Who.” The New York Times
Diet Cig reject lame apologies with ‘Who Are You?’... (the song has a) fuzzed-out earworm of a chorus.” Rolling Stone
“...a really strong follow-up (the album) has loads and loads of personality”
NPR (Top albums out this week)
With their sophomore album, (Diet Cig) return bearing more sugary-sweet pop-punk. While the band continues their trend of kiss-off self-affirmations ("I'm thriving/Thanks for asking"), singer/guitarist Alex Luciano has grown immensely as a lyricist since their 2017 debut.” Newsweek
"There’s certainly more shine on ‘Thriving’ than their previous LP. It’s a ringing, slightly campy ode to the dichotomy of seeking self-sufficiency and strength while simultaneously wanting someone else to acknowledge that you’re, well, thriving."
Consequence of Sound
"Musically it’s a gleaming churn with guitars that remind me of a moment when indie rock was adjacent to post-hardcore, topped off by some of Alex Luciano’s most startlingly beautiful vocal melodies." Stereogum on “Thriving
"with their signature powerful guitar chords and crashing cymbals, ‘Night Terrors’ gives fans a look into the band’s new era." Uproxx (“Best Of The Week” inclusion)
'Do You Wonder About Me?' is superior ear candy that won't hurt your intellectual teeth, and a more than worthy follow-up to 2017's fine 'Swear I'm Good At This.'" - AllMusic
"Undeniably exciting second effort...Diet Cig are growing and changing right in front of us—they’re still all the bands they’ve ever been—and proving that their journey is one worth following." - Paste Magazine
"Diet Cig specializes in punchy, emotionally rich chunks of pop-rock, with Alex Luciano’s sugary vocals and vibrant hooks adding a sparkle to the band’s stormy blend of churning guitars and pummeling percussion." - AV Club
Diet Cig have made a shimmering album that feels open, dynamic and more free than the band has previously sounded. Diet Cig have taken their time on Do You Wonder About Me?. The space they’ve allowed themselves to craft an album of so many delights and honest to goodness thought provoking revelations about self is something that should be applauded. Northern Transmissions
"The pop-rock duo’s second full-length release is about growing up, and the music matches." - Datebook / SF Chronicle
“Quite a comeback...the real powerhouse of this track is the drums, which launch the atmosphere headlong into weightlessness...meek vulnerability in the daintiness and girlishness of the vocals add an irresistible sweetness.” Stereogum on “Night Terrors”
"The musical dynamics of Diet Cig push the soft, girlishness of singer Alex Luciano up against a wall of rock guitars and it makes for something akin to Weezer without the toxic masculinity or No Doubt without the existential ennui." Refinery 29
“‘Who Are You?’ is a seriously catchy pop-punk anthem. The crisp vocals from singer Alex Luciano cut deep with a saccharine sound." DuJour
"a zippy pop-punk anthem delivered earnestly with crisp power chords and solid melodies." MXDWN on “Night Terrors”
"Diet Cig is the perfect dose of pop-punk. ‘Thriving’ is a song that puts all their principles front-and-center, from their dedication to crunching guitars to Luciano’s deceptively delicate vocals, which are a Diet Cig hallmark." - Grimy Goods
"Diet Cig has always managed to present bite-sized nuggets of power pop that stick with you, but ‘Thriving’ is the band at their best." - The Grey Estates
"The song perfectly displays the cohesion Diet Cig is known for while amplifying the punk duo’s ability to have fun with just about any subject matter." - The Wild Honey Pie on “Night Terrors”
"Balancing between brutality and tenderness" - New Noise on “Who Are You?”
“The band continues to impress with each new release.” - Chicago Now
On October 3 Diet Cig will embark on their first tour of the album with a show in Pittsburgh, PA. They will play Brooklyn’s Music Hall Of Williamsburg on November 5. Their first UK show will be November 18 in Bristol at Rough Trade. All dates are listed below. Diet Cig have made use of social media to compensate for not being able to tour this Spring and last night the duo went live on Instagram to celebrate the release of Do You Wonder About Me? with a listening party and a Q&A with fans.
Spending the time to make the kind of music they really wanted to make and making sure they felt good about it was crucial to the success of the album including tracks like “Night Terrors,” the record’s lead single. (Not rushing is, after all, part of growth.) The single is a slower-paced song than Diet Cig’s usual, but just as biting; a song about reckoning with all the past versions of yourself, figuring out who you are within all the people you’ve been, forgiving yourself, and taking stock of who you are now. As Luciano puts it, “Am I still these people, or have I shapeshifted?” It’s essentially the thesis of Do You Wonder About Me?, considering and accepting the embarrassing aspects of your identity, and how they’re just as much a part of you as the good stuff. Like standout “Broken Body,” a meditation on self-loathing whose chorus goes, “I’m still all the people I’ve ever been.” “No matter how hard you try to curate yourself,” Luciano explains, “they’re always gonna come out. There’s no hiding.”
“When we made our first record we almost felt like we had something to prove,” Luciano says. It was their debut album, and much of it was written on tour—the kinks in the songs worked out by playing them live. But the writing and recording of Do You Wonder About Me? was imbued with more freedom. Diet Cig had the sense that they could make whatever they wanted. Luciano and Bowman, instead of practicing live to an audience, worked on their songs over the course of a year in their practice space, and ended up finishing tracks with their longtime producer Chris Daly at Headroom Studios in Philadelphia, PA, and back in New Paltz, NY at Salvation Recording. Instead of making sure they’d fit their live show, Diet Cig tinkered with songs until they felt right to them. As a result, Do You Wonder has a freshness, a gleaming new direction. Fewer boundaries. More truth, more honesty.
Exploring their sound led Diet Cig to a new dynamism. As Luciano says: “‘You're laughing! You're crying! You're dancing! You're feeling emotional!’ We wanna bring it all.” There are short, languid vignettes, like “Priority Mail” and “Makeout Interlude,” alongside updates on the characteristic Diet Cig sound, like “Who Are You?,” a bubbly track that reveals Luciano’s moon is in Cancer, the anthemic “Stare Into The Sun,” and the record’s explosive kiss-off of an opener, “Thriving,” which Luciano says feels like a cathartic release for bitterness felt towards other people, as well as an acknowledgement of that fact that it’s OK to still wonder what people think about you even if you know you shouldn’t care. Ultimately, “Thriving,” and all of Diet Cig’s songs, are being unabashedly human.
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