Before venturing to The Triffid to see City Calm Down (16 September), I was curious to explore the band’s discography on Spotify.
Interestingly, there’s one song with almost two million plays while the rest have accumulated less than half the listens, the second highest only racking up around 700,000. I was immediately interested to know why only one release had managed to appease to such a large-scale audience.
The set’s beginning was in fact one of my favourite aspects of the gig; the stage illuminated by three, red triangles and vibrating with the breathtaking beginnings of ‘If There’s A Light On’. A lengthy introduction is a song characteristic I consistently worship no matter the band or genre; this one was particularly endearing.
Surprisingly, ‘Son’ (the second highest played) came next, the track one of the sole reasons I was initially lured to the performance.
I didn’t realise how boldly the piece was put together until listening live; its use of an organ is distinctive enough, but what’s more the band has recklessly abandoned any cookie-cutter structure of verse bridge chorus etc. instead composing each section with totally different musical ideas, changing tempo and even key constantly throughout.
City Calm Down showcased a newbie (excellent guitar riff though similar sentiments to previous releases, perhaps an indication of what could be a relatively safe album to come?) before frontman Jack Burke exhibited his impressed vocal range (hypnotisingly low at times) with ‘Wandering’.
Their 2015 album’s title track ‘In A Restless House’ is underrated by fans though evidently not by the band (having named their record after it); the verses were a little flat at times though the chorus was truly beautiful, instruments expertly layered to produce a sound that’s warm, even empowering; the kind that spreads from your chest through to your fingertips upon listening.
Being a big fan of Radiohead I was thrilled by the band’s cover of ‘Bodysnatchers’; the song is a tent firmly pitched in different territory to City Calm Down’s campsite, though they embraced it well.
‘Pleasure & Consequence’, from the 2016 EP ‘Movements’, proved an interesting contrast; seems like the band experimented with electronics earlier in their career rather than later. They maintained the tempo with ‘Your Fix’, another favourite of mine and another shining example of a glowing chorus that doesn’t quite stem from lyricism, but in fact an intricately beautiful sound production.
Despite ‘Border On Control’s acclamation it didn’t quite hit the mark for me, slightly too embellished with high-pitched synths; though I did love the bassline.
2017 single ‘Blood’ is exponentially heavier though simpler than City Calm Down’s previous releases; no bells and whistles here, the band has seemingly cast off any attempts to incorporate an assortment of musical genres and instead rode down the ever-appeasing road of rock, sticking to the basics of guitar-vocal-drums with the addition their iconic, '80s-sounding keyboard in the second half of the song.
The big one, the two-million Spotify listener, the all-round stellar single ‘Rabbit Run’ closed the set (pre-encore); I made note to listen particularly carefully, to evaluate why the release somehow stood out from the pack.
Truth is, there aren’t any standout features here, hell, even the lyrics are repetitive looking objectively, but as a package, the song is near perfect, each component totally faultless and even more so when blended together, meshing to produce a track that conjures up just as much invigorating emotion as any song really can.
City Calm Down are an interesting breed; being a four-piece indie-rock band I feel it would be easy for the quartet to fall directly into a number of different stereotypes though instead they teeter around the edges of a number of different stereotypes.
While composing, it’s almost as if they’ve taken the structure of what could be called a ‘simplistic song’ and bedazzled it with an array of elements that has truly given them their very own, very distinctive ‘voice’; what’s more, the elements WORK; think sweet and savoury like sugar and lemon, salt and caramel.
Although at times it felt strange watching a singer without an instrument (almost karaoke-like), and although their new releases (soon to feature on an impending album, no doubt) seem to simmer with the same ingredients they’ve been using since 2012; there’s no denying it’s a tasty recipe, one I wouldn’t want to let go of, either.
