CITIZENS! have announced details of the release of their debut album. Here We Are will be released through Kitsuné onMonday May 28th 2012.
The 11-track album was recorded in Scotland in the autumn of 2011 and produced by Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand.
The tracklisting of the album is as follows:
1. True Romance
2. Reptile
3. Caroline
4. Love You More
5. Let’s Go All the Way
6. (I’m In Love With Your) Girlfriend
7. Nobody’s Fool
8. Monster
9. She Said
10. I Wouldn’t Want To
11. Know Yourself
The band released their debut single, True Romance at the end of 2011 and their second single, Reptile, is set for release on April 16th. The end of last year saw the band support The Rapture and more recently they played the Electric Ballroom in London as part of the NME’s run of Award show gigs. Having recently finished their first U.K. headline tour, they head out for further dates in May and June, including a number of European shows. The full list of dates is as follows:
MAY:
12th Amsterdam – Paradiso (London Calling)
19th Brussels – Botanique
22nd Berlin – Frannz
23rd Hamburg – Prinzenbar
24th Cologne – E Werks Festival
25th Vienna – Flex
26th Kleinreifling (near Linz) – Seewiesen festival
27th Dorbin – Conrad Sohm
JUNE:
7th Paris Point – Ephermere
12th London – Hoxton Bar & Kitchen
14th Glasgow – King Tuts
15th Manchester – The Deaf Institute
16th Southampton – Joiners
17th Birmingham – Yardbirds Jazz Club
18th Sheffield – SOYO
For Citizens! aesthetics in music is all-important – ‘pop is not a dirty word’ they proclaim.
“We had this vision of the songs we wanted to write, and it was all about making pop music that was imaginative, exciting and interesting – rather than simple, ugly and horrible,” explains lead singer Tom Burke. And so after signing to French label Kitsuné they set about following their ‘manifesto’ and began recording their debut album in the wilds of Scotland, a process that proved to be a little unorthodox.
“We had a strict set of rules that we forced ourselves to abide by, One was we weren’t allowed to do any studio trickery, so there’s no autotune or correcting mistakes or anything on the record. And then there was the idea that no element of any given song was allowed to sound as if it came from the same place. So the main idea behind ‘True Romance’ was, ‘Kanye West producing an Arcade Fire song’. Or maybe it’s the other way round… But it’s the thing of doing what people least expect but making it sound addictive and exciting.”
The resulting 11 tracks prove to be an example of what Citizens! do best – classic pop subversion at its most cunning.
Citizens! are: Tom Burke (vocals), Thom Rhoades (guitar), Martyn Richmond (bass), Lawrence Diamond (keyboards / guitar) & Mike Evans (drums)
