SOMEWHERE BUT YESTERDAY

CITIZEN CAIN is one of the bands I avoided like a plague after reading in several places they were GENESIS clones, because even when I'm a hardcore fan of the Charterhouse School guys, the total imitation of even the best band, without a bit of creativity is something I can't stand.

A band can play in the vein of other decades and that's great for me, they can even be hardly influenced by a determined band and still release great albums, because they add something of their own, but a total copy is something that goes beyond my understanding.

So, after many years and only a couple months ago, while searching for some music, I found three CITIZEN CAIN albums including "Somewhere but Yesterday" and the surprise was huge, yes it's true that except for certain similarities between "Cyrrus" voice and Peter Gabriel's (To be honest, he sounds like a Gabriel, Collins, Fish and Nick Barrett fusion), I find no huge resemblance between the two bands.

The keyboard approach of "Stuart Bell" is absolutely different than the one characteristic of "Tony Banks" and the use of guitar is much ,more aggressive and less delicate than the one of "Steve Hackett", so the ones that believe this band is a GENESIS clone, must have an absolutely dissimilar perspective with me.

The album starts with "Johnny Had Another Face (Parallel Lines)", which begins with a strong introduction with some MARILLION reminiscences, even the keyboards sound closer to "Mark Kelly" rather than to "Tony Banks", but the style is richer and much more versatile, seems that the band capably blends moods and atmospheres of different eras and sub- genres.

A totally frenetic song with amazing changes and well elaborate sound, an excellent start for an even better album

"Junk and Donuts (An Afterthought)" marks a radical change, starts soft and narrative, in the vein of "Wind & Wuthering", a soft flute softens the strong aggressive intro and leads towards something totally different, some sort of Symphonic - Folk with profound and dramatic transformations in the structure. Even better than the precious track.

"To Dance the Enamel-Faced Queen (Beyond the Boundaries)" is simply breathtaking from the first note, without any warning, "Stuart Bell" hits us with his organ, giving no rest until the vocals join. At this point, anything can be expected, the horror to silence this guys have is evident, because they cover every single fraction of second with the sound of an instrument, giving no time to rest, something that can be too exhausting for the casual listener, but is a delight for the Progressive Rock fan.

"Somewhere But Yesterday" is "the piece of resistance", a 25 minutes multi-part epic that covers all the possibilities the band has, from soft. almost lyrical to aggressive and almost brutal, but always making the perfect change and working exquisite arrangements,. they can disconcert us because we can't imagine what comes next, but never disappoint or loose the coherence...An accomplished piece of art.

CITIZEN CAIN left one of the most explosive songs for the end, if they surprised us along the whole album, in "Strange Barbarians (The Mother's Shroud)" they present us different approaches and sounds, they even play some sort of "Jazz" by moments, but the star is the organ, that takes us through the 70's without copying any band or style in particular, they simply capture the atmosphere.

Excellent album that I regret having left behind for so many years due to other reviews, but this is a mistake that can be solved, already have three of their albums and waiting for "Serpents in Camouflage" that will be delivered in the next days.

The rating is hard, I'm tempted to rate "Somewhere but Yesterday" with 5 stars, but due to the fact that I haven't heard all their discography and compared releases, will stay with 4 stars until I have more perspective.