"Citizen - Life In Your Glass World" Annoyingly Inconsistent

 

    Citizen's been a band that's been on my radar for quite some time. I mean honestly it's more surprising that I've never listened to this band before than the fact that I have listened to them before. After all they're right up my alley of punk/emo music, so much so that I can distinctly remember people talking about Youth as this classic album of the genre, though never quite getting around to it. Regardless of how I feel about this band or how iconic some of their earlier work supposedly was, my friend CJ recommended this album to me, claiming it's their best work. Of course, a part of me doubts that because I don't particularly recall that much hype around this album, but this could still be an interesting jumping point for me to start my discography listen of this band, especially now that I'm done with that wretched Green Day one. So without further ado, my track-by-track reviews.

Life In Your Glass World - Citizen 

Death Dance Approximately - 85/100 Some slight Death from Above 1979 dance-punk vibes from the intro of this track, especially their later work like Outrage! Is Now, which I don't mind at all. A really strong intro track in my mind with some great guitar riffs and some shouty lyrics which are always a treat.

I Want to Kill You - 80/100 Another solid track from the band. My only qualm is that the line after "it gets so tiring" doesn't feel as cohesive as it should? Like it feels like it should be smooth but it just kind of ends abruptly before they move onto the next line.

Blue Sunday - 60/100 I don't mind the sort of compressed almost digital sounding vocals from the first part of this track, though I could see it being a turn-off for some people. It's certainly an a stark shift from the first two tracks which seemed content going as fast as possible. I think I really like the song when the lines "Kick me down, mess me up", finally kick down and the cleaner vocals show up I must admit. Honestly, I'm really surprised with how this song ended and the direction they went with it. It just felt like it was bursting at the seam ready to have an ending where the guitars come in roaring, but they just kind of waltz in casually.

Thin Air - 65/100 My thoughts on this song are pretty much the same as the last track, but I prefer the faster verses on this track. I just really thought the band would have a much stronger soft-loud dynamic and be more creative in terms of volume but it's just not there. I'm not that annoyed it's slowed down this much I just thought they'd do more with it,

Call Your Bluff - 80/100  On a first listen I was a bit annoyed with this song and concerned it suffers from weak chorus syndrome, which I think it does, but it's a pretty mild case and it's more like alright chorus syndrome. This track's certainly grown on me. I suppose I just need to re-adjust what I expect to hear from this album. 

Pedestal - 80/100 After the slow malaise that was the past couple of songs I'm really digging this one so far. I do think this song has a really good rhythm to it and even if it doesn't really explode in your face I feel like the chorus is still dynamic enough.

Fight Beat - 40/100 Certainly a decision to have song that's just verses, especially when the instrumentals in-between don't particularly provide that much of a riveting affair. At least the song is short? I feel like this mostly reinforces my belief that this band is leaving a lot on the bone here in terms of what they could do musically.

Black and Red - 80/100 Definitely a step up for the band in my opinion, especially with that opening riff, but definitely in the same class as Call Your Bluff in terms of top tier songs from this album for me, if not slightly better, just feel like the chorus could be longer.

Glass World - 65/100 A weird shakeup considering how electronic this album has felt so far but the acoustic guitar is certainly a welcome addition in my book. I enjoy the verses but the choruses are once again certainly a let down. I'm not saying I wanted electric guitars to come roaring in, but it's so anticlimactic there's simply no other way to describe it.

Winter Buds - 50/100 The heavier guitar solo near the end sort of redeems this song, but it feels too little too late for me. Maybe the first two tracks simply deceived me? Maybe the slower parts of this album don't interest me on any level, I'm not sure.

Edge of the World - 60/100 I actually enjoy the verses on this track, though I'm not sure how to feel about the choruses so far. Like, the choruses feel like they're building up to something that just never ends up actually happening, which I realize is what I've said for a lot of the songs on this album. 

Final Score: 70/100

    I don't want to call this album underwhelming, I wanted to enjoy this band, and actually had high hopes for it. It's just hard for me to ignore the fact that a lot of these songs are a lot more one-dimensional than they should really be. I think what makes it worse for me is that I see a lot of potential in the songs I didn't rate highly, I just feel like the band took a wrong turn on so many of them. I think there's a good set of more up-tempo songs that work, and yes I am not beating the I hate slow song allegations even if I did like that one Big Thief album. Do I think the first track is the best track? Almost certainly, in fact I'd argue it almost set the bar too high for what I thought this album was going to show. Honestly, if you had to make me choose relative to its current AOTY score I'd say this album is probably properly rated if not a tad bit overrated. I just don't think it's consistent enough to really warrant that much of a higher score from me.