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Vinyl Club: Citizen's "Halcyon Blues" · 78 Amped

• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: Sam Muggleton.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: Just thought I'd uh serenade you coming in here, Sam.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, sick.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: Cool.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: How that how they make you feel in your uh in your bones.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's uh sensual.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: You felt yeah, you felt it.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: But a bit sensitive at the same time.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be honest.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: I saw your eyes light up in a way that I haven't seen them light up in a long time.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's been a while since I felt anything.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: But I felt a lot on this album, Maxwell.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we are chatting.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: Halcyon Blues by Citizen, brand new.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: Well, not brand new.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: But it's not the four weeks old.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: We don't talk about brand new, Maxwell.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: They're not good.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: We are chatting about the new album from um Citizen.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: If you haven't gone back and listened to our interview with Matt, I would do that.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: This is that's his last name.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I would I would encourage that's required reading for this course, you know?
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it is.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's essential reading.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: It is essential reading.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: This is just kill yourself territory when you're in uni.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Further reading?
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: No, thanks.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Although I I reckon that the kids these days have it so fucking easy.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: AI can summarise that shit in fucking six sentences.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we had to read printouts.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I we've gone off topic for a second here.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: I did uh a few philosophy courses because of course I did.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, of course you did.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: Of course I did.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: And uh when we were doing Renee A.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: Carr, like, you know, his whole thing is I think therefore I am.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: You say you know, like we know, we don't know.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, I think therefore I am.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: And the whole like we had to read like an excerpt from his fifth 15th, whatever, whenever it was alive, 16th century book, which written in French, then translated into English in the fucking 16th century, and then you're reading like an updated fucking translation.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Tough.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: I'll tell you what, I was just like, well, I just went on the internet.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, what does I think therefore I am mean?
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: I read it, I was like, this is way easier than reading this cunt's fucking transl modern translated French medieval French text.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like, that's we don't need that.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know he's passionate when he drops a C bomb in there.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: So anyway.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: This crap, this silly country mile.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Silly starts with S Max.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: We've talked about this.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, if you sp depends how you spell it.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, Sam.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: We are talking not about Renee Akar or, in fact, any other philosopher.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: We are talking about Citizen and Halcyon Blues.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: This album, uh, as we pointed out in the interview with Matt, really takes a swing at a lot of different sounds.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: Does.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: There's times when I think those swings connect and they are home runs.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: There are times when I think those big those are big swings with not to say no ding, but it's a smaller ding than you might think.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: More of a bunt.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: Big swing into a little bunt.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, little bunt.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: Shall us, you little bunt.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yuck.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so let's let's get into it.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: Because I think I think it's not usually my style to go song by song, but I think it might help here.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: Oh.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: Because I think that each each song kind of does a a lot of different things.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think so.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: We start off with uh Good Fortune, which was one of my favorite songs from this, uh, from this record.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: The last single.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, it was.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: Craft singles.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: It feels very fountains of wane if they went emo.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like they've got that kind of synth sound over the top of like the pop, I want to say pop punk.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's not really pop punk, it's emo punk, but it's poppy enough that I think it falls into that category.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um like that chorus is very catchy.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, it is.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like that is that is straight out of a fountains of wine playbook, about having a super catchy chorus, like a cool little like guitar and synth blended riff that sits in the top of that.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: So that's kind of like a start off.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: But then when you get into the second song, I can see from here, much more gloomy, much more ominous, almost a bit flamenco-y guitar in the verse, burst, verse.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but then you get the like the you know, the uh the catchy chorus again with the double high, double hands on the hi-hats and stuff like that.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I was like, okay, cool.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we've gone for a very different direction, very different set of sounds.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I good fortune definitely connected better with me, but I I depreciated the second song.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: The the title track felt a bit more slowly, slowly.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: It was sweet and forlorn, but I think didn't quite connect with me as much.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: I think it sort of that's why I felt maybe one of those, it was a little bunter.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: Little bunt.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and then I'm not gonna go through every single song, but when you get things like Always the Last One to Leave.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: I when it started, I was like, okay, let's see where this goes.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: When that chorus hits, that song is fantastic.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's so I'm keen to hear what you think about the next song as well, because I think I understand what you're saying about the little bunt for a couple of the songs, but there are two songs in here.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: When they hit, they hit.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, always the last one to leave was it tickled a part of my brain I didn't know need tickling.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: I like if if you even if you don't like this kind of music at all, I would really highly recommend you going and listening to that song because it it it doesn't sound particularly punky or emo-y or heavy at all.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: It is It's a country country meets Joji meets Radiohead meets You can't put your finger on it.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: Or like classical orchestrated music.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: There's lots of things going on in there.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: And it the the way that all those things sit together in this chorus, it just feels it feels like it is in you're in a big room and it's full.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: If that makes sense.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a big barn of reverb.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: Very, very cool.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: The next song that we go into after that is either way, and here's the thing: I think those two songs are mirroring each other in terms of like the they're both very complex and they're both kind of they they have like acoustic textures at the core of them, but they then build into something that's bigger and more complex.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the P took the same pieces.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: I just don't know, but it just didn't click as much for me.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: That was more of a bunt.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so, where even though they closely mirrored each other texturally and sonically, I just thought one hit this dopamine center in my brain.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: The other one, I was like, it's not bad, it's certainly not bad, it's certainly not a bad song at all, but I just didn't have the like whoa moment with it.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it feels like always the last one to leave is the the combination that can hit every sort of different listeners.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um it can please every different type of musical listener, whereas either way is the more emo focused.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because for me, I love both of those songs, they're easily the two standouts for me.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: But either way has the edge because of that emo guitar to it.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: But uh always the last one to leave, banger.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: Matador was another one I really liked, which to me sounded like if the gorillas made like a hardcore punk song.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I don't know what it was, something about that song just sounded like Feel Good Ink to me.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, like not like not in the sense that you're gonna listen to go, this sounds nothing like Feel Good Ink, but like you know when something just triggers that part of your brain?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um in Smooth Talker towards the back end, you get more of that kind of mod punk, fountains of wine, almost motion city soundtrack kind of thing.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and then the last one that I thought was a real a real banger for me was Highs and Lows.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: Sounded like almost note similar, not exactly the same, but very similar to one of the Haley Williams songs.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I couldn't pick which one, Metazapine, maybe?
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and just worked, just works really well.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I think like in this record, there are four absolute yeses from me.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and there are probably another three yeses, but just not on the same level.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know what I mean?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like they they they're good, they're excellent, but they're just not they don't hit me in the way, like an emotional level like some of the other ones did.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then I think there's probably another whatever the remainder is where I was like, eh, these are fine, they're not bad.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: There's I don't think there's any uh song on this album where I was like, this is a bad song, or this could have been left off the album.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think there was just a few that when the the ones that hit really hard hit really hard.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I think to to go from one of those into one where you're like, I still get it, like it's like, God, it's so close.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: It is full of when it hits, it hits, and then the other ones you kind of my take on it is like you've got these premium songs, and then you've got some A tiers, yeah, but the premium songs make the A tiers look like B tier.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: And that's like what's it called?
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: The uh, the the the battle of small differences where when there's just a tiny gap between something, it feels like it's a chasm because it's like it's so close to being the other thing.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: The cameras aren't on.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: You should see the side I'm giving fuck me.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: Captain Philosophy over here.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think I like what I appreciate most about this album is like that this is a band that is going for it.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: They are swinging big, as I said.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I I generally appreciate that, like for the album where they've gone.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: Even the ones where I'm like, this isn't necessarily for me, I do appreciate the the textures and stuff they put into them.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like, is it in my brain one of the songs that's in there?
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like, there's so many things that they're putting together where they've got this big lead rift, they've got this really percussive sound, then there's like a drum machine bit, then it kind of feels like block party or like Northeast Party House or something like that.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and like to if you try to explain that to someone, they'd be like, What the fuck are you talking about?
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: But then it it does work together quite well, and so I'm like, they've balanced a lot of things to pull together a like 12 very cohesive songs.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very good album, and I think there is genuinely something for everyone in it.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like you think you can find little diddies, you can find little p diddies saying little p diddies, uh which is what he kept looking for.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: But I think overall, um, I I enjoyed it, it was a really enjoyable listening experience.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: I thought I'd like to go back and maybe the ones what now that I know what's coming for the ones that I really enjoyed.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: I think the ones that were like almost there won't have such a big gap for me, and maybe I'll appreciate them more.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I might give this another listen and see if it um see if it changes anything.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: But thank you for for providing this one.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: My pleasure, Maxwell.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: I've got some homework for you though, Sam.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: Hit me.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: I think I know what it is.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's you definitely know what it is, but I'm gonna mix it up for you.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: So, shout out to our friends over at Sony Music who uh gave us a pre-release copy of DMA's self-titled.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: DMA's.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: You should have seen the look you gave me after he said pre-release.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: You can still get pregnant from pre-release, Sam.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: And um, so I'll give you that one to have a squeeze out.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: And while you're doing that, I'm gonna throw in a little cheeky second bit.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: If it's in here somewhere, it is definitely in here somewhere.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's the front one.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: It is the front one.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: It is the other self-titled release from DMAs, um, which was their 2014 EP, which uh they they uh hit the world with.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the reason I'm giving you both of these, which is kind of weird, is that in our chat with uh with Mason, he called out how he feels like the the debut, sorry, the the um self-titled record, the fifth record, feels the most like the self-titled EP.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I think I tend to agree, and I want you to kind of have a listen and see how you feel.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um and they are both very um uh acoustic, not in the sense of like an acoustic guitar, but acoustically driven.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: There's not a lot of um product, well, there's a lot of production, but not a lot of like, you know, over production, you know what I mean?
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: There's not heaps of synths and drum machines and all that that are coming in.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: Well, again, sounds that DMAs play with well, but they've gone for a very stripped back acoustic kind of approach to it.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: All right, yeah, I'm keen to dive in.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, I've heard the new album.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not too familiar with the old one.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: You've given me 17 songs.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Have I?
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 11 and 6.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, to be fair, that uh there's at least one on that record that you don't do, and there's uh we'll see how we go.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we'll see how we go.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot of homework, but I probably won't go track for track.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'll go vibes.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, go vibes, go vibes.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Maxwell, any vinyl thoughts to lead us out?
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: Sam, uh, I I did happen to put a little order in um for a couple of DMA's records, you're not really surprised.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: Surprised.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to fill out the uh I've since we've been doing that interview, I've really been going back and and and going back through the discography and going, God, I really do enjoy this.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: Fucking love DMAs.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so they're on the way.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um I've got uh I've got a couple more that are sort of there or thereabouts on on the way through.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll see how we go.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: Anything around it.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh no, still tied on the purse strings and the wallet.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: As you said last week.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, I should coin purse sandwich.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: Ew.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Buy me dinner first.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but no, let us know in the comments.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what are you guys listening to?
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we finish each other's sandwiches, don't we?
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Tasty.