Citay - Little Kingdom

Citay - First Fantasy



A few months back, Citay played a show at PA's Lounge. I had never heard them before, but PA's is a great place to see amazing bands you don't know about. So I followed the link to their MySpace page from the PA's website and gave them a listen. Beautiful! I loved it, and totally wanted to go see them. Then, the night of the show, I was talking to one of my friends on the phone about what I was doing that night and he said, "Hey, that show was last night, not tonight." Yeah, I'm an idiot.

So I didn't get to see them that night (I went to see Frightened Rabbit and Bodies Of Water instead, great show, review here), and I have only recently picked up their new record, Little Kingdom. Well, needless to say, I'm much sadder now knowing I didn't get to see them when I had the chance to.

Little Kingdom is a really solid record. It's hard for me to describe because it's a type of music I don't listen to very often. It's trippy and psychadelic, droney, very upbeat and poppy, with lots of layers. Lots and lots of layers. Many singers, and lush instrumentation. In fact, this is much more "kingdom" than it is "little." It's so full, with a lot going on. It's warm and it immediately fills the room. And while it's not "loud music" per se, it's definitely something that wants to be played loud. It has a somewhat delicate wall of sound thing going on, which is awesome.

Little Kingdom reminds me of an album called Bells Break Their Towers by Bright. But Citay is more druggy. Similar elements are there, though. The guitars at the forefront, with long stretches of plucking overlapping the drone. The vocals are pretty similar, too, but Bright's are more chant-like and used more like another instrument instead of Citay's more traditional use.

Citay is a lot of fun and Little Kingdom is a fine addition to my mostly non-Citay sounding library. It's a comforting record that isn't abrasive or, well, metal. It's nice having something to put on when Elise is around that isn't dance music.