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REVIEW – I am so confused right now. Why should I still call ELECTRIC CITIZEN, an underground band? How is this band not fucking huge right now? I made a comment in my review of their debut album that “This band can never top this album. This is the best debut since Appetite for Destruction.” I was so wrong. Their follow up, Higher Time was epic and made my top ten of the year. I felt if anyone could put up a strong third album after two metal/hard rock classics, it would be ELECTRIC CITIZEN. Laura Dolan, to me right now, is the best singer in any genre and any gender. She has an inviting, yet haunting voice, that always keeps you warned and yet excited. Helltown comes across as a stoner party full of warm beer, bad weed and many acid trips running naked on lawns. Their last two albums always pushed the boundaries of retro, but always seem to keep it wrapped in a modern day wrapper. This time around, it feels like we are on the main stage of the Midnight Special. This record is striking, but yet smart. I feel the band felt they would draw comparisons, so they kept their own identity fairly on the forefront. Ross Dolan is the secret weapon of the band. The guitar playing on this album would give Iommi a boner. Helltown has this gritty sound to it, that just makes your spine itch. It makes the listener want to get up and just rock out. This psych rock metal acid trip has one huge negative. It had to end. While Higher Time showcased the band expanding their sound with songs like Evil. This album showcases the band should be more than just “another band”. This should be “the band”. Heart Attack, is the perfect opening track. It opens up with this feeling that you are walking into an event that has been going on. It sounds musically like if Janis Joplin and Rush had a baby. I hate to use the term “prog”, but it feels prog.
That is what this album made me think of, old school Rush. This band seems very determined to explore their sound, which to their credit, they truly know what works and sticks close to that formula. People would expect this band to be a group of talented guys who stand in the background while the female lead takes over. That is so far off the map from what this band is about. This is a band, a tight sounding and complimenting band. The musicians know how to compliment each other and make each moment feel and reek of epic. They have a lead singer who when she opens her mouth it is like a stoned poet wanting to smell the flowers off the side of the moon. This is the part I hate, where I have to think of how they can follow this album up. The band has proven me wrong twice now, and produced epic follow up albums. I truly cannot see how they can top this peak. In a year that most albums have really bit the dust or come out on Monday and forgotten Monday night, this album sticks out and should be heralded by rock fans and critics as a return to the simpler times in music, when the music was what mattered, not the political views or speeches. If we are remembering the time in life when the music did the talking, and if we are judging this album by what the music told me, there is no fucking hope for any album this year to be better than this. This band should be fucking massive. Not since the 70’s has a band had three back to back records that can be called classics. Music that I feel are 10 top of all time worthy. This band is that once in a lifetime band that I truly feel if they leave the scene, it will be the day the music landscape will have a huge hole to fill. ELECTRIC CITIZEN are fucking for real, and are fucking awesome. This album is a must own. All hail 2018’s saviors.
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