The Ocelot - Dark Minds EP review
The Citizens, on the other hand know exactly what they are about, and their latest offering, "Dark Minds," showcases three tracks that both kick arse and cut the mustard and if it were possible present a step up from last years "Drinking Games." The lyrics are socially aware and the music brooding, dark and richly textured and the production has a warm quality to it. This time round they seem to have been even braver with the electronic washes that sweep majestically through the songs. Certainly a band to check out.
www.toxicpete.co.uk - Dark Minds EP review
I really like what The Citizens are doing with their quirky mix of indie-rock and electro-experimentation. I suppose the nearest equivalent would be Depeche Mode with a contemporary twist and less pop, more rock - but read on there's a far better comparison (sadly, not by me) latter on!!
Once again The Citizens have come up with a blindin' EP in 'Dark Minds'; opening with the darky thumpin' 'Pull The Pattern Down' and you're straight into the middle of The Citizens quite progressive world - it's a crackin' opener and set things up just brilliantly. 'Take It Back' has an element of Oasis about it, think the Gallaghers with hefty keyboard underlay and you'll get the mood and drift of this catchy rocker. Things are brought to an end, all too quickly for my liking, with the title track, 'Dark Minds', which is kinda mid-territory, mid-tempo Citizens - juicily commercial and irritatingly hooky.
This excellent Wiltshire four-piece have once again impressed me with their excellent musical all-round-ness; everything is based on quite exemplary, inspired songwriting but the four have to become one to really pull it all off and deliver their fantastic signature sound that's largely based around guitars hamonising with keyboards....and some! Oh, and they do, The Citizens are indeed a single entity and their music benefits greatly from their creative togetherness and musical solidarity!! The Citizens have been likened, by Sheer Music, to "...The Happy Mondays jamming with Kasabian..." - and that's absolutely spot-on!! Quite possibly one of the most concise and totally accurate descriptions I've ever read - hammer...nail...head come to mind!!
The 'Dark Minds' EP by The Citizens is as dark as you want it to be and as up-lifting as you'll allow it to be - an absolutely brilliant piece of work that's totally 'now', massively commercial and thoroughly enjoyable - surely The Citizens must be on the 'brink' now - this is as good as anything currently out there. Hey lads, when you gonna do an album?!!!
Captain Sensible - The Damned
Meanwhile Pinch had chosen another cracking support act - the Citizens, who were pumping out some great choppy rhythms and swooping synth lead breaks. Terrific stuff.
www.toxicpete.co.uk
The Citizens press pack tells of a band that "produce guitar and keyboard driven rock...". What it fails to tell the uninitiated is just how bloody catchy their work is. And, this four piece, The Citizens, originating in the Bristol, Bath and Swindon area, sure do have an ear for a good 'chune' and know how to get their message across.
The Citizens rock as hard as the best of the indie/rock units out there. Where they score extra points for me is with their interesting and infectious use of, often electro-style, keyboards; The Citizen have a distinctly fresh sound about them. They're as raunchy as hell yet somehow chilled - a weird combination that works very well and certainly gets the feet tappin'. Their melodic songs here are generally up-tempo and very well put together resulting in a remarkable clarity that many of their contemporaries (if they indeed have any) would die to achieve. The Citizens do a sort of 'pop'/rock thing but they do it in a way that's just that bit removed from the norm. The sound they've created between them is tasty and often intriguing; the guitars give The Citizen a punchy, rocky drive whilst the slick and innovative keys give an altogether smoother and fascinating vibe. The rhythm section of bass and drums do no more than they need to do - perfectly positioned and carefully balanced they provide a pulsating and scintillating backdrop. The vocals are crisp, clear and confidently delivered. All-in-all, The Citizen have it pretty much nailed all round!
Tracks included here are, 'Drinking Games', 'War Machine' and 'Better Than The Truth'; each one has a story to tell, each one is impressively crafted and beautifully played. The citizens have taken time to get the mixes just right and it's paid off coz 'Drinking Games' is a crackin' little EP that showcases The Citizens' work and style to great effect. Something a little bit different but with a whole lotta taste!
(Rhythm & Booze rating 8)
Sheer Music
Dark and brooding indie rock / baggy, sounding like The Happy Mondays jamming with Kasabian - possibly with less drugs, so more concise, and with a bit more rock balls!!'
www.myspace.com/livingatheist
'Okay, this is a good tune. The guitar is very good. The bass is plucking great. Love the drums. And the vocal is also good. The lyrics are a bit of a head butt to the drink culture too. And you can hear almost every word clearly so three cheers for the sound production too! I want to hear it live, I mean, I can just imagine how great this would work. It has that bottled up energy thing going on that you just know explodes onstage.'
Decode Magazine Feature
'An opener seemingly soaked for months in Stone Roses and washed through with an early Oasis sense of the epic gives way to mellower moments before some monstrous riffs tear back in. I suspect I'd require some sizeable speakers and a padded room to listen to this 'properly'
http://mmambalbums.blogspot.com
The Citizens are another well established band that I am yet to see live so, until this unacceptable situation is resolved, I thought that the next best thing would be to put pen to paper in respect of their most recent EP, Drinking Games. I managed to gather some information from their MySpace blurb the reviews posted there, though all this talk of Oasis and Stone Roses made me a wonder whether or not it was going to be my cup of Earl Grey. Not that I have anything against either band, it’s just that they both have such defined sounds, anything close would probably just appear like short change.
Thankfully, as soon as the title track hoved into earshot, I realised that there was something a lot more interesting at work, something that immediately put me in mind of Reverend and the Makers jamming with Artic Monkeys over a rockabilly back beat, now that’s how you grab my attention. The fuzzed up guitar pushes them in a rock direction, but it’s tempered by some interesting keyboards work. Although their building blocks are mainly the stuff of the old blues rock format, it’s the inclusion of this subtle electronica that keeps it grounded in the here and now.
War Machine comes at you like a fully fledged indie band, all clean limbed and oozing groove and melody, and includes some nice dynamic shifts as the song moves from its driving guitar base down into more mainstream rock territory before kicking back in with a polished punk play out. Before you know it a warped bass is pulling us gently into the last number, Better Than The Truth, a song that seems to entertain ideas of funk, ska, retro-rock and even a reggae meets carnival keyboard, all without sounding disjointed or unfocused.
What I appreciate most about their music is the fact that they have something to say other than the usual 'fancy a dance?' or 'my girlfriend has left me and I’m a bit miffed, to be honest'. Maybe not the earth shattering statements of global magnitude but, certainly the stuff of social conscience and politics with a small “p”.
It’s a polished, small collection of songs, by a band that certainly knows how to write infectious tunes that match power with subtlety, drive with melody, and sound original yet familiar at the same time. If this is what they sound like within the limiting confines of the recorded disc, this is a band that I really need to experience in the flesh. As soon as possible.
Paul Wojciak, Evening Advertiser
The songs were held together well and showed good variation.
Lily Canter, Gazette & Herold
This could be a chart topping hit. By the time the chorus comes round the second time you cant help but sing along.
Alex Lawless, Gazette & Herold
The Citizens say they have moved into darker territory with their new EP Your World Comes Down. Now I cannot possibly comment on that as this is the first time I've heard them, but whatever they've done, it's brilliant. This is simply one of the most polished EPs I have heard since joining the Gazette and it seems a shame they aren't signed and having their music heard by a larger audience. The EP sounds Cooper Temple Clause meets Sonic Youth with a touch of The Stone Roses thrown in. The first track, Your World Comes Down, has a distinct Ian Brown feel to it with singer James Petherbridge al-most mimicking Brown's now whining but captivating voice.
As a song it shows their ability so clearly they might as well be playing while using a Red Arrow to spell out `we are great'. The slower A Beautiful Escape al-lows The Citizens to show they are not the same one track wonder a lot of bands can become. . A sad look at the end of a relation-ship and the sorrow that comes from it, it's one of those tunes that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. You can almost picture girls swaying uncontrollably at the front of an audience. Final track She Burns is laced with strong guitar riffs touched up so smoothly it is as if drummer Dave Gould used a paintbrush and gave the song his finest strokes.
The band shows incredible competence throughout their EP. I can only emphasize they are ready for bigger and better things.
