There’s a warmth running through Citizen Smith’s ‘Somewhere Between Leaving’ that feels increasingly rare in modern guitar music. It’s the sound of musicians trusting instinct over perfection and emotion over presentation.
The Norwich four-piece approach this record like old friends telling stories long after midnight, letting memories blur around the edges without losing their emotional clarity. Across thirteen songs, the album drifts through themes of love, distance, aging and quiet acceptance, but never collapses into self-pity. It carries itself with the weary optimism of people who understand life’s bruises are inseparable from its beauty.
Musically, the record pulls from a lineage of classic songwriting without feeling trapped inside it. You can hear echoes of The Beatles in the melodic instincts, flashes of R.E.M. in the bittersweet atmosphere, and traces of Big Star in the way melancholy and brightness coexist so naturally. Yet Citizen Smith never sound like a tribute act recycling old ideas. There’s too much sincerity in the performances for that.
The album’s strongest moments arrive when the band allow imperfections to remain fully visible. Tracks like ‘Considered’, ‘Wine Bottles’ and ‘Afterglow’ feel almost startling in their openness, recorded with minimal interference and left deliberately untouched. Vocals crack slightly, timings loosen around the edges, and instruments breathe against each other rather than locking mechanically into place. And those decisions give the songs an emotional weight that overly polished productions often lose entirely.
Even the more immediate tracks carry that same sense of lived-in honesty. ‘Superman’ and ‘Summer Magazine’ bring flashes of jangling, melodic pop-rock energy, but they never feel designed purely for easy hooks. There’s always an awareness of passing time sitting quietly beneath the melodies.
What ultimately makes the album resonate is its refusal to dramatise ordinary human experience. These songs understand that life is rarely defined by grand revelations. More often, it’s shaped by smaller moments; such as conversations half remembered, relationships quietly changing, and the strange beauty of carrying both joy and regret simultaneously.
Citizen Smith describe themselves simply as “four good friends doing what they love,” and that spirit runs through every second of this record. ‘Somewhere Between Leaving’ may not shout for attention, but its emotional honesty certainly leaves a lasting impression.
