Review: CITRA have a story to tell with new EP, ‘Mr. Copacetic’

It’s easy to become terribly numb these days. From the barrage of tragedy on the evening news to a president’s childish need to express every tantrum on social media, you could easily extricate yourself from the world and discard any sense of self or emotion. But that apathy, associated with sloth, one of the Seven Deadly Sins, does no one any good, least of all, yourself. An alt-rock group out of Denver called CITRA found themselves tantalized by that theme, expressed through their chaotic starbursts of psychedelia, slathered and mixed with slick, handsome modern rock. Their sophomore EP, titled Mr Copacetic, is a draining but wholly thrilling disc. “It seemed like the world is kind of going to shit right now. That seemed to be a kind of constant thing I was writing about, but not thinking about it,” frontman Brandon Arndt told a reporter.

Rounded out by guitarist Augie Menos, drummer Dan Naddy and bassist Sean Slattery, the band retreated to a mountain house just outside the city. Three days locked up in solitude, and drawing upon the sweeping landscape at their feet, the music bred a profound heaviness. “I got a bullet in my teeth, yeah / Should I turn and learn to lie,” Arndt rambles on the barn-burning opener. Lyrical simplicity is paired with violent guitar waves, which break down the door from the outset and never let up. “Felt So Right” skids along, while “That’s What She Said” pulls back for quite the restrained performance ⎯⎯ “She said ‘you don’t know me, but I know you real well’ / She said ‘you might think I’m crazy, cause I come to all your shows,'” he sings, situating the song as a contemporary, more gritty update to The Police’s “Every Breath You Take.”

“It was beautiful. There’s no cell phone towers, I was just sitting on a dock, I had a beer, the sun was going down, and there’s a pond” said Naddy, who stresses the environment’s unwitting role in molding the EP’s sonic templates. It’s lawless, a helter-skelter of brash and highly-flamable rock strains. “Grant My Wish” tumbles into the eardrums, smacking of ’90s grunge. “R.Y.F.F.” then builds off that electricity to ebb and flow with Arndt’s impulsive and evocative delivery. “I’m lickin’ the sun / But I don’t want to be the only one / Hold! A fucking parade ’cause I don’t want to be a masquerade,” he screeches over scratchy, bone-tearing guitar, on the final stanzas, hammering home the EP’s threads. “Yeah,  I lack emotion / Feelin’ no pain, slappin’ the same, lickin’ the sun…”

Through untamed musical ambitions, CITRA position themselves as a force to be reckoned with, and Mr Copacetic is a testament to their bullet-proof capabilities. Their future waxes bright.

Grade: 3 out of 5

Photo Credit: Shannon Shumaker

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