PLAYING DEAD

It has been way too long since I last heard a new Citizen Cain album, and I see that this one was actually released at the end of last year. I also note that the X's have been dropped, so the band is again Citizen Cain and Cyrus is, again, Cyrus. The line-up has also been fluid, something that the band have suffered with over the years, but Cyrus is now not only providing vocals but also bass, as he used to years ago, and for this album Stewart Bell has not only provided keyboards but also drums, again as he used to years ago. They have now been completed by guitarist Phil Allen.

It took nearly three years to record, and much of the momentum gained from their earlier superb albums such as 'Serpents In Camouflage' has been lost, and the new album has been released on their own label whereas the reissues of their SI albums had been on Cyclops. So is this enough to be able to get them noticed again?

Hopefully the answer to that will be a resounding 'yes', as yet again Cyrus and Stewart have produced an album that will have critics and progheads alike wanting to play it repeatedly. Citizen Cain will always find themselves compared to old-school Genesis because of Cyrus's vocal style, and the fact that he can sound uncannily like Gabriel when he wishes to. But, and it is a big but, this not an album of a Genesis copyist but rather an album that takes that musical ideal and moves with it. Genesis may have become something of a parody of their former selves but CC have shown that it is possible to develop that musical style into something that is still worthy of the label 'prog'. I love the Python excerpt in 'Inner Silence'.

The underground scene isn't nearly as active as when they first came onto the scene, or even the second time, but now they are back for the third with a complex complicated album that any proghead will surely enjoy. It's time for progheads to rediscover the joys of Citizen Cain.

Originally appeared in Feedback #76, Oct 2003