Talk about blessed relief, hallelujah and praise be all in one merciful musical package. Commendably rejecting the seemingly endless factory line of bands eager to recruit New Wave/Post Punk (c.1977-1981), Ireland’s The Citadels instead re-enlist the literate early-to-mid ‘80s breezy pop heartache of Aztec Camera, Prefab Sprout and The Go Betweens. Too fresh and refreshing to be mere copyists they tip their hat to the old guard but uncover in Cormac O'Caoimh a versatile song-writer who’s trying on a number of dandy pop overcoats, and getting them to fit nearly every time.
The opening trio (‘Water, Anchor, Shore’ / ‘The Pen In My Hand’ / ‘Letting Go, Holding On’) admirably pins their colours to the mast, showcasing those influences and the band’s dexterity at handling the subtleties that the songs require. On ‘I Quit’ this phase of the album reaches a peak; the song carried by a rolling restless bass-line and some great vocal interplay between Cormac and Aoife Regan. Together they effortlessly captivate when they sing, ‘lay your guard, lay your guard down’. The Brechtian folk of ‘Lazarus Rise’ is less of a certainty: the deliberate uneasiness of the tune is understood but there’s also a sense of incompleteness, like it should have been one of those experimental tracks on a between album EP.
Onwards and upwards, the album sashays into a cocktail hour as the band tints the songs with a light jazz feel: the piano playing and cascading bass-line on ‘December in Monaco’ or the sublime soft-shoe shuffle of ‘Picture of You’ on which Aoife takes full advantage of her solo lead vocal. The tracks sandwich the jazzy and funky work-out of ‘Fade’.
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The last three songs of the album are some of the most recent compositions and demonstrate Cormac’s burgeoning skills at song-writing. The acoustic ‘Side to Side’ has a folk-pop/classical arrangement, recalling similar efforts by Beatles era McCartney. ‘Why, How, Who’ is the triumphant band song: muscular without being heavy-handed, there’s a confidence in the loose-limbed playing that marks them out as ones to catch live. Closing track ‘Chorus’ lets some of David Gray’s scattered percussion into the mix that flits edgily around the conceit of the lyric and verse/chorus structure.
Introspective without being insular, smart without being prim, The Citadels have fashioned a debut worthy of your attention. If Cormac can keep his muse and they can join up with a sympathetic but revelatory producer (as Thomas Dolby was for Prefab Sprout) they could easily gallop ahead of the tiring horse that is the New Wave of the New New Wave.
www.thecitadels.net
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