Review: Citay "Dream Get Together"

Citay

Dream Get Together

Grade: A-

San Francisco’s Citay are a classic rock revival group with solid songwriting, Allman Brothers guitars and Steely Dan vocals. Soundscapes are built with guitar solos free from electronic studio effects. Like Dead Oceans label mates Bowerbirds; Citay tends to keep it simple, relatively. Dream Get Together, the group’s third studio album, is hardly raw. The guitars are more Styx than Stones, and keyboards are layered throughout with strings and organs. With nary a song under four minutes, three reaching over seven, Citay’s songs indulge in what has been rock taboo for almost decade, without leaving you bored. They allow themselves be virtuosic without stuffing their crotch. What makes this album enjoyable is the way the songs shuffle without having heavy snares or dance beats, as well as being able to have lengthy tracks without forcing or feigning avant-garde. Citay pulls from their influences very well. They even have a tongue in cheek tribute to CCR with “Fortunate Sun”. This album is worth a listen if you know your classic rock canon. The album lags as every song begins with the “strumma strumma struuum” acoustic guitar, but JET they aren’t, so play on.

-- Nico Dodd

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