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For Lipstick Killer, Cigarettes & Heartbreak Vol. 1 isn’t a breakup record, it’s a document of collapse. Released on January 23, the EP traces the emotional free fall that followed the end of a five-year relationship she genuinely believed would lead to marriage. What she captures isn’t just heartbreak, but the moment when love, identity, and certainty all fracture at once.
“This album was born out of a life-altering, heart-shattering betrayal,” she explains. The love ran deep, but so did the damage that followed. The breakup wasn’t clean or clarifying. It was disorienting — the kind of loss that rewrites how you understand yourself, your instincts, and your future. Instead of rushing to reinterpret the story from a distance, Lipstick Killer stayed inside that wreckage and wrote from there.
One night during that period became the emotional cornerstone of the EP. Sitting alone on her porch, crying and smoking, something she’d only done occasionally before, she noticed her ashtray overflowing with cigarette butts. “Like 50 of them,” she recalls. She hadn’t even realized she’d been chain-smoking to cope. The image hit immediately. The ashtray wasn’t just clutter, it was a record of grief, of love burned down to remnants, of survival happening without intention or grace.
That moment gave the project its name and its meaning. Cigarettes & Heartbreak became a symbol for the emotional space she was moving through — smoke, silence, sorrow, and the strange honesty that comes with hitting emotional bottom.
Across the five tracks, “Who Dat,” “Delaware Ave,” “Darkness,” “Have A Nice Day,” and “Real,” the EP unfolds like an emotional timeline rather than a traditional release. “Darkness,” produced by Greg Zola, leans into hypnotic guitar lines and heavy beats, confronting obsession and jealousy. “Delaware Ave” anchors betrayal to a real place, turning a street name into a permanent marker of infidelity confirmed through a recorded conversation.
However, the project isn’t frozen in despair. “Have A Nice Day” reframes anger as reclamation, while “Real” brings the EP to its most vulnerable point, acknowledging repeated heartbreak and the realization that survival itself is a form of strength.
At its core, Cigarettes & Heartbreak Vol. 1 is about understanding that immense love and immense pain aren’t opposites — they’re mirrors. To feel one deeply is to risk the other. With this EP, Lipstick Killer tells the truth and leaves space for anyone who recognizes themselves in it.
