The first album from the UK-based electro-pop-whatever group Citizens! drops this week.
“True Romance,” the lead track on the new album, is also the lead track on Kitsuné 12: The Good Fun Issue, which came out last year. It’s a great lead track; simple, patient and precise with opening twangs of guitars, a jaunty piano and back-and-forth snare clap.
It continues picking up momentum with shouts of “WHOO” until it unleashes its full fury of energy with a quick drum kick and wobbling synth line. The lyrics are clear, optimistic and joyful. The instrument lines are straightforward, but build on the simple ideas outlined int he first few seconds of the song.
When it’s done, it gently fades, leaving you with a simple thought: “True romance. Here we are.”
Obviously critics pre-Napster (or moreso all the current streaming services) had the benefit of people reading without any ability to listen, so readers would build up an anticipation and perhaps an understanding, before buying and listening.
I love the idea of intense pre-release hype for albums. The process is so much faster these days.
I’m far from calling the pace of today’s music consumption something akin to “irresponsible,” but there’s something alluring about the idea of foregoing the luxury of quantity in favor of a shared music consumption experience dictated by a few trusted personalities.
Whether anyone needs reviews or criticism is another matter, and a great source of concern, as well as a fascinating challenge to think how technology can evolve the role of the critic and the editor, to help music fans know what’s going on, and to help the world discover records that a generic algorithm might never highlight.
I’m only starting to see that today’s ubiquitous availability of music is a little bit of a red herring; it’s a lot easier to get distracted and listen to crap than spend time with a few great albums. This puts lots of importance on finding trusted recommenders and tastemakers to guide the way, rather than assuming that you can figure it out by having access to all of it. It also puts a lot of emphasis on good taste, in general.
There’s so much music around and I guess there are people who know a bit about everything, but you’ll find the most influential people are the ones who are masters of their sphere of taste.
It’s fun to know a lot about lots of stuff, but realistically, the best people are the ones you know they know what they know.
It’s just a matter of deciding what you want to be known for knowing.
A great track that moves forward with an ever-present thumping drum line. The main melody bounces off the syncopated keyboard line in the background, while chord moves like the one at 1:20 demonstrate some thoughtful and surprising sophistication.
The glittery arpeggios and the broken voice track toward the end add the electronic production shine that these guys do so well. The drum comes right back to the front of the mix for the final chorus to drive the whole thing home.
To be honest, we have no idea what is in fashion or not, and it’s not really a concern to us; it’s too hard to think about what is cool and uncool, and it can be alienating, so we don’t think about it too much. We have really simple tastes in music, so we reassure ourselves by thinking: “If we honestly like it, other people might like it.” That’s the problem with joke references, you end up not knowing if it was made for fun or because it’s actually good.
