CITIZEN CAIN

"Somewhere but Yesterday" is the second full-length studio album by UK, London based progressive rock act Citizin Cain. The album was released through SI Music in 1994. It´s the successor to "Serpents In Camouflage" from 1992. There have been three lineup changes since the predecessor and only lead vocalist George Scott "Cyrus" and keyboard player Stewart Bell remain from the lineup who recorded "Serpents In Camouflage".

Those two are the most dominant figures in Citizin Cain though and to my ears the lineup changes haven´t meant much in terms of development of sound and style. This is still neo-progressive rock which is greatly influenced by Fish-era Marillion, IQ, and late 70s Genesis. The latter influence is predominantly felt in the voice and singing style of "Cyrus", who has a voice and singing style which is relatively close to sounding like Peter Gabriel. While I initially wrote that little development has taken place since the first album, it´s not completely true and I´d say Citizen Cain has spend more time composing slightly more memorable and impactful parts than on the overloaded and busy debut album.

They still have a tendency to drag their ideas out and compose songs which are way too long considering that not enough of their songwriting ideas are particularly memorable or stand out from each other. The 25:40 minutes long "Somewhere but Yesterday / A Word in Your Ear" is a bit of a chore to get through and you still have to get through another four 10 minutes long tracks before the album ends.

So the term too much quantity not enough quality applies here. This is not bad by any means, it´s just feels like a band full of neo-progressive rock fans who know all the tricks in the book, and perform them without much emotion and without trying to put their own spin on things. If you´re content with listening to a band with zero identity and unique ideas and just can´t get enough of 80s influenced neo-progressive rock, I guess "Somewhere but Yesterday" is as good a choice as anything in that style, but if you crave just a tiny bit of originality and uniquenss from the artists you listen to, I can´t recommend this album. Objectively A 3 star (60%) rating is still warranted for the qualities featured on the album.

When I finally got my hands on a copy of this hard-to-find cd by Citizen Cain, it didn't take long for me to appreciate why it's been held in such high esteem by many fans of the Genesis and Marillion school of prog. Yet another band with a lead singer (Cyrus) who sounds a lot like Peter Gabriel and Fish, this is perhaps the most keyboard-heavy of the "Genesis clone" bands, and rich in emotion and virtuosity. Allow me to note that part of my "music quality" rating includes a consideration of both the originality of the music, and the diversity in song selection. To the extent that this band (like Neuschwanstein, The Watch, and others) is clearly derivative of Genesis, they lose some points on the originality scale; but these are really great compositions nonetheless, and played well. (I will add, tho, that I could have used a bit more in the diversity department - minor quibble!) Excellent production adds to one's listening pleasure, and you have to appreciate the artwork (drawn by Cyrus also) on this captivating, intelligently structured concept album. Some have complained that there is just too much singing and not enough breathing room for the instruments, but I think that's rubbish when you have a lyricist and vocalist this talented. Let him sing.

This is one to seek out. Exceptional all around. Recommended. 4-1/2 stars

Skies Darken finds Citizen Cain returning after a decade of silence following the release of Playing Dead. Impressively, the lineup of Playing Dead has stuck around - a rarity for a band whose history has been plagued with lineup instability. Band leader Cyrus is still on lead vocals and bass, duties he's undertaken since the band's earliest days in the 1980s. Keyboards and, secondarily, drums are handled by Stewart Bell - the one consistent member of the "Mark 2" lineup of Citizen Cain since the Serpents In Camouflage debut album. Phill Allen returns on guitar, having joined on Playing Dead.

Why Citizen Cain should go quiet for a decade, re-emerge to release this album, and then (at least as far as commercially released music goes) disappear once again, I don't know; these long gaps are uncharacteristic for a band which had previously been able to put out an album every 2-4 years from 1993 to 2002. On the other hand, the time off seems to have done them good, since Skies Darken is easily their most original and distinctive-sounding release.

Accusations of Genesis mimicry have often dogged Citizen Cain, and with Cyrus' singing voice being as closely modelled on Peter Gabriel's as it is it seems unlikely they'll ever put out an album where that won't be a factor. That said, his performance here is different from his usual style - less bombastically theatrical, much more melancholic and philosophical, Cyrus's vocals here are less prone to intrusively upstaging the musical performances than on any previous Citizen Cain album. As far as the music goes, there's a dark and funereal cast to things here, an injection of grim latter-day neo-prog reminiscent of the likes of Arena's Contagion or late IQ which takes things far from the pastoral romanticism of Genesis.

As of the time of writing, it's been eight years since Skies Darken was released; hopefully we will not have to wait that much longer for another Citizen Cain album, for at this late stage of their careers they seem to have flowered and revealed a powerful, distinctive sound of their own that puts their earlier material in the shade.

With Phill Allen joining as a full member of the band on guitar, Citizen Cain are able to offer up a somewhat more intricate offering on Playing Dead than they did on the preceding Raising the Stones, which saw them exploring a (comparatively) stripped-down sound having to act as a duo. One of my recurring complaints about the group has been that Cyrus' vocals have been a bit ham-fisted - OK, sure, it's an uncannily close imitation of Peter Gabriel from his Genesis period, but it's mostly been in one particular mode and has lacked subtlety in the past.

Here, Cyrus takes a more rounded approach to things (though with occasionally poor mixing decisions leaving Cyrus' calmer moments somewhat drowned out by the music), pointing to a perhaps more well-rounded direction for Citizen Cain in the future. Whilst I'd say it still doesn't hit the peak of Somewhere But Yesterday overall, the compositions are becoming more intricate again, which helps create a sense of development and progression over Raising the Stones, and by building on that foundation the band manage to be less slavishly imitative of Genesis whilst still using those Genesis ideas which work well in context.

Catastrophic lineup troubles plagued Citizen Cain after the release of Somewhere But Yesterday, with the result that the recording a followup proved a more difficult process than expected. In the intervening time, Mellow Records in Italy put out Ghost Dance, a compilation of recordings from the 1980s trio incarnation of the band - "Citizen Cain Mark I", if you will - but Raising the Stones, as the third album by "Citizen Cain Mk II", is the true successor to Serpents In Camouflage and Somewhere But Yesterday.

With the band reduced to the duo of stalwart keyboardist Stewart Bell (who also provides drums - I suspect via drum machine) and vocalist Cyrus, with Andy Heatie guesting on guitar on the first track only, an attempt to reproduce the sound of Somewhere But Yesterday would have been folly under the circumstances. Instead, the band turn necessity into the mother of invention and evolve their sound - taking things away from the symphonic Genesis-mimicing style of the preceding release to instead delve into darker neo-prog territory, with a punchy, powerful approach that is a bit more aggressive and confrontational than classic Genesis.

It's a sinister, claustrophobic sound, and there's an air of terror and fury in Cyrus' vocals which help this, though at the same time the sonic evolution also underscores what I keep harping on about in these reviews - which is that, unfortunately, Cyrus' vocals are still a significant sticking point in the band's sound. If anything, Cyrus' unimaginative mimicing of Gabriel-era Genesis (or rather, one particular mode which Gabriel brought to bear in Genesis, since Gabriel was a much more versatile vocalist even then than Cyrus shows himself to be) is even more incongruous now that the musical backing has moved away from rote Genesis worship.

With more original ideas combined with the improved handle on composition that the band showed on Somewhere But Yesterday, this release overcomes the difficult circumstances of its recording and an occasionally cheap-sounding keyboard sound - but I feel like Citizen Cain's music would be improved markedly were Cyrus to evolve his vocal approach as much as Bell evolves the music here.

Citizen Cain are largely known on the prog scene for what you can regard as their "Mark II" lineup - with band founder and lead vocalist Cyrus and keyboardist Stewart Bell as the core of that unit, having emerged from the shadows with the original "Citizen Cain" demo tape in 1991.

However, delve back into the mid-1980s, when the original wave of neo-prog was riding high, and a different incarnation of Citizen Cain is revealed. A three-piece unit consisting of Cyrus, Tim Taylor, and Gordon Feenie, the group made enough waves on the scene to attract the attention of Elusive Records - a label started by Marillion's then-manager with a distribution deal via EMI, which was intended to provide a launchpad for neo-prog acts arising in Marillion's wake.

As it stood, Elusive didn't end up releasing that much; they got Pendragon's debut EP (Fly High Fall Far) and album (The Jewel) out to market, and they put out a sampler entitled Fire In Harmony, and that's it. If you didn't happen to catch Citizen Cain live (they headlined a few shows themselves but were more known as a support act for the likes of Pendragon, the Enid, and fellow late bloomers Final Conflict), the Fire In Harmony album would likely be your only exposure to them in the 1980s, in the form of the track Unspoken Words nestled along songs from the likes of Pendragon, Quasar, Solstice and Haze.

However, that is not the end of the story for Citizen Cain Mark 1: alongside Unspoken Words, they did manage to record a few other tracks during their run, and once the second incarnation of Citizen Cain began to pick up steam Italian label Mellow decided to put out this archival collection - providing the band with a handy stopgap release between Somewhere But Yesterday and Raising the Stones.

This is important context to take into account when listening to this album, because the sound of Citizen Cain in the 1980s is a little bit different from that of the current incarnation of the band, and because the production values on this collection reflect these songs' origins as demos. Don't get me wrong - these are some comparatively nice- sounding demos and the songs are perfectly audible, they just don't quite have the extra clarity and polish that a bit more professional time in a fully-equipped studio would have given them, and if you go in expecting professional- quality sound that might trip you up.

In terms of the musical style, the vocals from Cyrus are the most obvious stylistic link between this incarnation of the band and the one which followed, obviously enough. It's evident that Cyrus was always very, very invested in mimicing Genesis-era Peter Gabriel, and he does a pretty good job at that. Where things go a little sideways here is that this isn't always as appropriate to the musical backing as it could be. In particular, the band's musical style seems to lurch giddily about the place, sometimes going for an update of pastoral Genesis, sometimes engaging in something replete with tricky rhythms reminiscent of the more avant new wave groups of the era.

It feels, in fact, like Citizen Cain's 1980s output is the product of a tension between a desire to go full retro-prog on the one hand and an attempt to sound more modern on the other which was never really resolved during that lineup's existence. At its best, this tension means that the songs are full of twists and turns and surprises, with both the sides of their sound teasing out the best in each other; at its worst, it makes the compositions sound like a disconnected mess of parts, with each part intended to appease one band member or another by focusing on the musical style they favoured.

As such, whilst it's a pretty interesting body of work, I feel like the dissolution of Citizen Cain Mark 1 was a foregone conclusion; if a band isn't willing to bite the bullet and actually settle on a musical direction, it can't last long with such tensions unsettled. Ghost Dance is an intriguing release which would probably be best enjoyed either by existing fans of Citizen Cain who are curious about the band's origins, or by folk who are keen on the 1980s neo- prog scene who want a taste of what Citizen Cain were offering up during that era.

One of the most blatant and formidable interpreters of Peter Gabriel-era GENESIS, this is their most classic and well-lauded album. The music is very well constructed, very well produced, and performed with all of the subtlety and craftsmanship of Genesis or Fish-era Marillion.

1. "Jonny Had Another Face" - CITIZEN CAIN (17.25/20) = 8.625 2. "Junk And Donuts" - CITIZEN CAIN (18/20) = 9.0 3. "To Dance The Enamel-Faced Queen" - CITIZEN CAIN (16/20) = 8.0 4. "Somewhere But Yesterday" - CITIZEN CAIN (41.5/50) = 8.6 5. "Strange Barbarians" - CITIZEN CAIN (22/25) = 88.0

85.0 on the Fishscales = B/four stars; a very nice contribution to the Neo Prog realm. The similarities of this music to that of the band that they are imitating are often a bit too blatant, almost plagiaristic, which begs the question: is this music redundant?

Citizen Cain's long career was always problematic, but heading to the third studio album these issues started to become a bit too serious.First comes the dissolution of the SI label, but fortunately Cyclops would be there to support the band (and eventually re-release its entire back-catalogue).Second comes the reduction of the performing crew.With most of the material written for the new work Cyrus and Bell were counting on the presence of Alistair MacGregor on guitar.As he was of Australian citizenship and his visa was about to expire, MacGregor had to travel back to Australia, the result was that Bell and Cyrus had to rewrite the material, which was now heavily based on keyboards.Andy Heatlie provided the sole natural guitar parts of the first track and the album was released in 1997 as ''Raising the stones''.

With the band being always fond of long and emphatic compositions, ''Raising the stones'' couldn't escape the rule.70 minutes of Retro Prog in the vein of GENESIS with three pieces clocking longer than 10 minutes.''Last days of Cain'' is a great opener, featuring Heatlie on lead guitar, and coming as a complete effort of theatrical Symphonic Rock with impressive synth flights and some harsichord work by Bell, the sinister voice of Cyrus and the measured but well-needed guitar plays of our guest.From this point on the album becomes heavily keyboard-oriented with some sampled instrumentation displayed, exploring the historic style of GENESIS, but being much more complex in nature, while Citizen Cain's lyrical moments and orchestral parts have a quite dark atmosphere.Good enough reason to compare the group with the less shiny side of MARILLION.The compositions remain impressive, unbelievably dense for a duo, with many complicated instrumental ideas, providing a set of unique atmospheres (including some programmed strings).Neo Prog with a blistering sound and monumental symphonic overtones, maybe a bit too much keyboard-based, but always coming up with a great quality of compositions, based on fast grooves, dual keyboard flashes and odd breaks.Typical CC stuff until the very end.Sort of...because the closing ''Silently seeking Euridice'' has to be one of the better songs written by CC, a bit different than their usual offerings.Romantic parts combine with a strong MARILLION-esque atmosphere, big orchestral moves and lovely symphonic strings, featuring a timeless vocal performance by Cyrus.Absolutely brilliant.

These guys could play.''Raising the stones'' is not inferior compared to the rest of the Citizen Cain albums and if you like Genesis-styled Prog Rock this was made for you.Strongly recommended due to some fantastic instrumental parts, vocal lines and the reckless efforts of Bell and Cyrus...3.5 stars.

Here we have the third album from Citizen Cain (not the fourth as some would have you believe), some three years after 'Somewhere But Yesterday'. There had been quite a change in line-up as well, with the band now reduced to just a duo of Cyrus and Stewart Bell. There are no details of who plays what, just that they performed everything themselves apart from lead guitar on one song which was played by Andy Heatie. As with all five reissued albums, it has been remastered and there is a subtle alteration of the artwork, but the track listing is as the original with no additions. In many ways this is one of the band's darkest pieces of work, as they strike their own path and move somewhat away from the early Genesis feel into something that is more brooding and powerful. The bass is now much more to the fore, and taking on a greater lead role, while Stewart's keyboards have grown both in stature and layers.

The word that keeps coming to mind when trying to describe this album is "power", as although they are now reduced to a duo this is very much a band firing on all cylinders that disproves the notion that prog musicians should just sit back and not worry too much about the rock element. That is definitely disproved here as these guys belt it out, yet still have loads of time changes and switches as move through numerous styles and designs. By this time in their history Stewart and Cyrus knew each other well, and how to work together, and more than 15 years after the release of this album they are still producing great music.

Festival Music have reissued the first five albums in a remastered form, and now couldn't be a better time to discover the incredible symphonic prog of Citizen Cain. www.f2music.co.uk

Over the years I have had to cull my collection various times, so the filing cabinets full of press releases and band information had to go (although I did keep my complete files on certain bands), as did many of the CDs. But, I kept every photo I was ever sent, along with every cassette. Many of those bands are no longer with us so these tapes are sometimes the only thing left to remind me of what might have been, but here I am now playing a remastered version of a CD that I previously was unaware of (apparently it was released on Mellow at some point), which in turn is of a tape that I was originally sent by Stewart Bell twenty years ago. The CD contains the same track listing as the tape, which was subtitled 'The Original Citizen Cain 84-87'. It isn't easy to track down a biography of the band from these early days, but luckily I have also never thrown out any music books so by referencing the first issue of 'The Progressive Rock Directory' (written and published by David Robinson who now runs Festival Music which has released this) which came out in August 1992, I am pleased that my recollection of events is right (for a change).

Citizen Cain were originally a trio, forming in 1984 with George Scott (now known as Cyrus or Xyrus) providing bass and vocals, Tim Taylor (guitar and keyboards) and Gordon Feenie (drums, keys and flute). Interestingly, Tim and Gordon were previously both members of Not Quite Red Fox who turned a pre-Marillion Fish down as a frontman because he didn't have enough presence! Over the next three years Citizen Cain gigged a lot, especially in London at The Marquee and started to gain a reputation as a slightly different sounding band due to the way that the bass is often a lead instrument. They had one song on the famed 'Fire In Harmony' compilation, but had to split up after Cyrus was in a car crash that left him unable to play bass. After he returned to Edinburgh he then met up with the guys who would then form the basis for a new group, who went in a more symphonic and overtly early Genesis direction.

So, history lesson out of the way, what is this album actually like? Well, remember that it isn't actually an album as opposed to a collection of songs as they only officially released the one song during their existence. But, given that this originally was a set of low-key recordings from the Eighties it actually stands up well against the other material from the time. Yes, Cyrus has a distinctive voice that makes many think of Gabriel, but these guys sound nothing like Genesis with a bassline and approach that is quite different. I would be interested to hear what they sounded like in the live environment, as keyboards are an important aspect although not essential, and I am sure that Tim switched between the two during a gig as Cyrus is often playing lines that are far more than just backing. This was a powerful prog trio and one can only wonder what they would have achieved if the accident hadn't taken place.

Some people have been quite disparaging about this album which is a real shame as I believe that it definitely has it's place in the prog canon. It is something that I have really enjoyed playing, but just remember that this was early days for the band and in many ways it is totally different to the style they developed in the Nineties. So, although some may feel that this is only one for completists I would instead say that while not essential it is a damn fine listen and something I have enjoyed playing again after quite a while.