Album Review: 1919 - “Citizens Of Nowhere”


Very much veterans of the goth scene, Bradford's 1919 were there at the beginning in the early '80s, releasing a number of critically acclaimed singles but never quite reaching the album stage. Since reforming around a decade ago, they've quickly set to righting that, releasing no less than four LP's and even carrying on after the untimely passing of founder member guitarist Mark Tighe. Most recently, their 2019 effort Futurecide was a very respectable effort so the omens were good here.

Opening track Borders definitely has a very strong hint of Bauhaus about it with Rio Goldhamer's vocals being very reminiscent of Peter Murphy and the track itself being a searing anti-racism/imperialism rant which it's difficult to disagree with. The nervy paranoia of TV Love is similarly indebted to Northampton's most sinister, think Lagarjita Nick or similar but doesn't quite hit the mark. However, the moody Feels Like Forever gets things back on track with its swirling Cure-style guitars and pounding drums. Demigod adds a touch of glam rock into the equation with its Stones/Dolls strut and shows that 1919 definitely aren't keeping their sound confined to one genre.

Only The Good and former single Singing To The Universe both go back into more doomy Cure/Sisters of Mercy territory before Jackie takes things off into a more post-punk territory namechecking Iggy Pop (I'm Bored) and the Ruts (In A Rut). The panic attack of Sweet Blue Murder mixes 1919's post-punk and goth influences to good effect before the unexpected major key A Gilded Cage almost goes into pop-punk territory before the dark paranoia of the verses brings it back into darker territory.

If there's a minor complaint to be made here it's that aside from the aforementioned Demigod, 1919 tend to mostly stick to two sounds, namely post-punk and goth. Fair play as it's clearly something that time has proved has worked well for them down the years but that track kind of proves that they can actually do other stuff pretty well too. But overall Citizens of Nowhere is a good solid effort which can happily sit among their other post-reformation efforts. Not bad at all.


NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑🌑 (7/10) 

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