Citizen‘s instant-classic debut LP Youth turns 10 in June, and to celebrate they’re playing four anniversary shows that month. They’ll be playing the album in full at the shows, which happen in Boston, Chicago, Austin, and Los Angeles, with Fiddlehead opening. Tickets go on sale Friday, January 27 at noon Eastern.
We included Youth on our list of 25 classic emo & post-hardcore albums turning 10 in 2023, where we wrote: What do you do after releasing a debut album as instant-classic as Youth? In Citizen’s case, the answer is you just keeping reinventing yourself. That’s led them down the unpredictable path of caustic post-hardcore (2015’s Everybody Is Going to Heaven), poppier alt-rock (2017’s As You Please), dance-punk (2021’s Life In Your Glass World), and first-wave punk revival (2022 single “Bash Out”), and it also means they’ve never made another album like Youth. I’d argue that they’ve made some of their best music in more recent years, but if you want Citizen at their most heart-on-sleeve, their most youthful (no pun intended), and their most full-on emo, you’ll always get that from Youth. From the perfect title to the iconic, Tumblr-friendly floral artwork to the arsenal of singalongs, Youth encapsulated the sound and look and feeling of emo’s then-new wave. This wasn’t “emo revival”; this was emo for a new generation that was coming of age and seeking out fresh, new bands to call their own. From fist-raised anthems like “The Summer” to emo/shoegaze hybrids like “How Does It Feel?” (and Will Yip production), Youth had a firm grasp on where emo was in 2013 and where it was heading. It can feel like such a moment in time–both for the genre and for wherever you were in your personal life in 2013–but these songs also hold up as some of the best of that era.
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Meanwhile, Fiddlehead also have Northeast shows with Drug Church and Angel Du$t coming up in February, and an anticipated new album on the way.
Stream Youth below, and order a copy on highlighter yellow vinyl in the BV store.
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CITIZEN: YOUTH TOUR
Jun 15 Boston, MA House of Blues
Jun 17 Chicago, IL House of Blues
Jun 22 Austin, TX Emo’s
Jun 24 Los Angeles, CA The Wiltern