Everyone has that band they fall in love and grow up with. You might not have even expected it. They may be the relic of a phase that you laugh off as embarrassing and treat like it never happened. Believe me, I can relate. I was a deathcore fan in high school only because my friends (briefly) liked it. You’ll never catch me acting like I enjoy a genre now.
Not everyone’s band sticks around past those teen and early adult years. As a kid, you don’t wonder what an artist might be like when you have more priorities than time. Having that band make it to your 30s and keep evolving feels rare nowadays.
For me (and maybe Ian Cohen), Citizen is that band from my younger emo-punk self. I found their Young States EP in high school thanks to a fellow brooding teen. I felt connected to singer Mat Kerekes because he was born only a few days before me. And I became a fan who obsessed over their debut record, Youth, in online forums like AbsolutePunk. Even then, I never could’ve guessed they would be here after five full-length records.
In celebration of their first show on January 28th, 2010, let’s look back on 15 years of Citizen.
From Young States to Youth
With their earliest releases, Citizen built a consistent sonic palette. Mat Kerekes’s quiet-loud vocals and down-to-earth lyrics led the way. Behind him is a tapestry of rock instrumentals — from founding members Nick Hamm (guitar/vocals) and Eric Hamm (bass) — that flirt with emo, grunge, and punk. Their first releases with Run for Cover Records wore a juvenile nature on their sleeve. Young States came out when the band was in high school; Youth was primarily written when the members were 18.
I was a 19-year-old when their debut LP came out in June 2013. There were countless hours spent listening to it, whether at work or falling asleep to the vinyl in my attic. From the aggressive first seconds of “Roam the Room”, Citizen is a band keen to evolve, with a producer in Will Yip eager to amplify what they do best. Across 31 minutes, they chart a quintessential course for a fourth-wave emo record. There’s the catchy singles (“The Summer”, “How Does It Feel?”). You’ve got the vulnerable playlist bait (“Sleep”, “The Night I Drove Alone”). And then there are the bouncy alt-rock B-sides (“Your Head Got Misplaced”, “Sick and Impatient”).
If Young States leaned more into pop-punk, Youth solidified the band’s rep as a rising emo darling. They would be the sole Run for Cover artist to take part in Warped Tour 2013, covering the entire run. I volunteered to support the label during the Buffalo, NY date — in exchange for free entry! — and still remember the hype folks had to see the band play. Mid-afternoon rolled around, and the crowd packed in under the summer sun. I stood backstage with Jeremiah from Pentimento and soaked in the band’s performance.
Citizen spent a year and a half touring the album with acts like You Blew It! and Hostage Calm. They embarked on one of the best tours of spring 2014, supporting The Wonder Years’ The Greatest Generation. My friends were most excited to see Modern Baseball at the opening date in Clifton Park. Hell, I was too. But after nearly a year of listening to Youth, I was dying to see the band live. They didn’t disappoint.
When the time came to work on a follow-up, they returned to the studio with Will Yip and worked on a bold set of new songs.
Bold Swings and Constant Refinement
It would’ve been easy for any band to stick with their tried-and-true sound. Especially after it made them an underground act to watch. Instead, Citizen took an ambitious route with their second LP, Everybody Is Going To Heaven.
While peers were going spacey — such as Title Fight’s Hyperview and Turnover’s Peripheral Vision — Citizen went darker than ever. The opening track “Cement” serves as a declaration that the band wasn’t here to churn out some retread. They wanted to evolve with new moods and sonic textures.
I signed up to review the record for the now-defunct Mind Equals Blown, so I sat with it over the hot weeks of June 2015. Unlike the summer nights in Buffalo falling asleep to Youth two years prior, I worked full-time at a co-op in Vermont, often sleeping until the late morning. Adulthood has sprung like a weed. There was rent to pay, a college house to clean, and two kittens to raise. (I can’t recommend the last one to any responsible young adult.)
Needless to say, this heavier, grungier effort was like a soothing antidote. And when the time came to put my thoughts into words, I praised the band’s shift in sound:
“With the utilization of Will Yip continuing to grow as a trend within their genre, Citizen trusted him to take their progression to the next level. Among their peers in Title Fight, Turnover, Superheaven, and Balance and Composure, who have attempted the same with various results, they manage to avoid meddling in these other aesthetics so they can develop their own.
Their progression through the various stages of their lives has continued to be ripe with open-mindedness and a constant focus on the best way to express themselves. That allows Everybody Is Going to Heaven to flourish to a greater degree than its contemporaries.”
What stands out is how much Mat Kerekes’s vocal delivery leveled up between records. It’s not the band behind him going in bold new directions and he’s playing a passive role. His delicate singing is more confident in tracks like “Heaviside” and “Yellow Love”; his screams more ferocious throughout heavy-hitters in “My Favorite Color”, “Stain”, and “Ten”.
If their second record was the band finding their voice, then As You Please was a refined and atmospheric step forward. It bridged the cathartic emo of Youth and abrasion of Everybody Is Going to Heaven while adding vocal layering and synth experimentation to their tapestry.
Mat Kerekes once again leveled up his songwriting and vocal performance, this time after releasing his 2016 solo debut, Luna & The Wild Blue Everything. Across the 12 tracks are reflections on struggle. Of fighting for air in a world that feels suffocating. The title track details a collapsing relationship; the teeth-gritting “I Forgive No One” captures crisis without forgiveness.
The highlight of the album — “In The Middle Of It All” — a much poppier song than anything they had done before. It showed that the band didn’t need bold changes on every record to keep growing.
I’ll admit: I was out of the loop with the band between these records. Graduation came and went. I started my first “real salaried job” and got absorbed by a culture of drinking beer on Friday afternoons. Anything to distract from living paycheck-to-paycheck instead of “making it,” I guess.
And yet, I still remember where I was when the lead single and opening track “Jet” came out. On my way home from work, driving down Pine Street in Burlington. Like Citizen’s first two albums, vivid memories tie As You Please to that period of my life in ways few bands can claim. In hindsight, its lyrical themes were a harbinger of my own relationship struggles.
Trusting Their Gut in a Glass World
Four years passed between As You Please and their fourth LP, the longest gap between records. At face value, Life in Your Glass World followed a similar pattern in how the band shifted their sound to Everybody Is Going to Heaven. If that second album is a gritty grunge pivot, Life in Your Glass World is a sparkling dance party in comparison. Elements of their core sound are in the riffs and drum beats, but the band is also eager to add a disco-punk edge.
This record is impossible to separate from the early COVID years. I was working from home, living in my glass world, and trying to stay productive through a depressed rut. But like their previous releases, this fourth album seemed almost perfectly timed for that moment.
With the pop-centric single “I Want To Kill You” and earworm opener “Death Dance Approximately”, the record is Citizen going bold with a more aggressive, self-produced direction. “Blue Sunday” goes down a dreamy distorted path. The run of “Call Your Bluff”, “Pedestal”, and “Fight Beat” turns the energy Citizen mined for years into danceable fury. “Glass World” channels more of the intimate emo vibes the band became known for, but through a lens of 10 years of musical maturity.
More than their previous releases, Life in Your Glass World takes the listener on a clear journey. The harsher, dancier tracks lead the way, but the layers start to unfurl as the album goes on. The songs get softer until the album ends about as abruptly as it started, leaving you at the edge of their world.
Calling the Dogs to Get Rough
When the time came to record their fifth album, Calling the Dogs, the band opted against another self-produced effort. Instead, they teamed up with producer Rob Schnapf (Elliot Smith, Saves the Day, Kevin Devine). Like As You Please, the result feels fresh and like a culmination of everything they’ve done. It’s like the band is applying countless lessons and unlearning others to make a novel part of their sizable discography.
What stands out on each listen is how punchy and garage-punky these tracks are. Songs like “Can’t Take It Slow” and “Takes One To Know One” almost feel like “Citizen does The Killers.” Some dip into power-pop territory (“If You’re Lonely”, “When I Let You Down”). Others are eager to explore past abrasion with post-punk grit (“Dogs”).
It’s easy for bands to tap into past success, especially when they’re on their fifth record. And yet, Calling the Dogs is Citizen at their most laid-back yet mature. “If You’re Lonely” feels like the mature endpoint for the writer of “The Night I Drove Alone”. It’s a sign that positive growth exists, and you’re not doomed to past sadness.
As their latest release, it still feels premature to reflect on its role in my adulthood journey. But I feel an undeniable sense of stability when I listen to it. Maybe it’s the energy from new members Mason Mercer (guitar) and Ben Russin (drums), and years of growth behind them. I imagine it’s because it came out in my late 20s when I finally felt solid ground beneath my feet. It could be a coincidence that they timed out that way. Or maybe not.
Life has few constants, but Citizen has been one of my adult existence. Their music is something I’m always connected to, if only by a similar age and shared moments in time. It will be exciting to see how they progress with their next record. Until then, I’ve got five records to throw on whenever the mood arises.
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