Citizen Cain'd

Psych/folk rock. Artistic and musically/politically transgressive. Male vocals with a wide variety of singing styles and processing. Lyrics are political, sardonic, mythological, humorous, immediate. Mostly guitars and interesting noises. Mood ranges from quiet & spooky to dark & indignant to happy & cathartic to manic & intense. Most songs mid-tempo and fade out. Cope was the singer/songwriter/bassist with UK neo-psych band The Teardrop Explodes starting in the late ’70s. Since then he’s had a long solo career with some interesting collaborations, including one with DC band Trouble Funk. Cope is a published Krautrock scholar, a huge Roky Erikson fan, and a practicing Druid. FCC clean unless the words “give me head” qualify (that’s disc one, track 4.) All songs great. Disc One: start with 3, 4. Disc Two: start with 2.

Disc One
1. Dark, semi-gothy guitar anthem. Sorta tribal percussion. Starts with 20 secs of soft, percussive noises.
2. Shambolic, noisy psych rock. Manic and intense. Starts with manic spoken vocals about a train coming in to a station. Quick fade.
==> 3. Political psych folk ballad about Saddam Hussein and the cult of politics. Distorted vocals. Starts with multi-tracked acoustic guitars. Ends with “Yeah, that’s where I’m living,” then quick fade.
==> 4. Psych/noise anthem with “ooh-ahh” vocals. Starts with loud fuzz guitar. “Don’t give me love. Just give me head.”
5. Up-tempo noise/dance psych rock. Retro feel, like very early Who. So cool. “Depends what you mean by dead.” Ends with several secs of silence.
6. Slow, dark, electric blues rock epic (13 mins long). Starts with guitar noises and drums. Instrumental for first two mins. Fades and then a few secs of silence.

Disc Two
1. Dark, slow, folk rock epic (10 mins long). Starts with very slow fade in from silence. Includes spoken introduction as though it’s live. Ends with “Feels like a crying shame,” then several secs of silence.
==> 2. Angst-filled, slow, apocalyptic folk rock. Clear, very present vocals. Starts with acoustic guitar and keyboard arpeggio. “This song is freaking me out.” Fades, then several secs of silence.
3. Spacy, introspective folk pop. Sort of the title track. “I have a light. Different to you. Everything blows me away.” Starts with pretty synth and acoustic guitar. Fades, then several secs of silence.
4. Slow, electric, Neil-Youngish country rock. Starts with twin-lead guitars. “Lately, baby, homeless strangers catch my eye.”
5. Slow art piece. Almost poetry -- voice is way out front and instruments way in back. “I knew I was listening to the living dead.” Starts with noisy guitar. Piano becomes prominent toward end. Ends with more than 10 secs of silence.
6. Noisy/psych epic ballad. Full of angst. Voice plus noisy, multiple guitars--and that’s all for the first four minutes. “I watch myself walking down the road.”