Charlie Brennan

London five-piece Citizens! told the NME that they’re gonna ‘bring pop back to the people’, and early signs of them succeeding are looking very very good. Mixing catchy guitar chords, memorable synth-riffs and melodic, actually good vocals with alternative song topics (like becoming a reptile), Citizens! have squeezed themselves into the tiny collective of artists who are writing decent pop music for love of the genre, not singing someone-else’s words for massive profit. Anyone with good taste will tell you that proper pop music is currently being replaced by autotuned nothingy naffness, and more acts like Citizens! is exactly what the music scene needs at the moment. Their debut, Alex Kapranos-produced, album ‘Here We Are’ drops on May 28th.