Review Summary: Citizen Bridge is one of the best debutalbums I've ever heard. It deserves to be mentioned in the same sentence as Grace by Jeff Buckley. This is a great album.
The Bridge is an up and coming Slovak indie band consisting of
Tomas "dAsK" Bobovcak,
Jozef "Lemmy" Bobovcak,
Michal "Miso" Bobovcak and
Jaroslav "Jaro" Geci. Their ex-drummer
Roman Sestak also makes an appearence on this album, playing the drums on two of the tracks on
Citizen Bridge.
dAsK is the natural frontman. A charismatic live artist, and a mysterious character on the band's musicvideos. He possesses one of the very best voices I've ever heard. I'd compare him to the e.g.
Jeff Buckley,
Ville Hermanni Valo,
Jonathan Peterson and
Rufus Wainwright. He also knows how to rock a guitar. Electric as well as acoustic. He is also able to produce beautiful music with the piano. He is one impressing guy. Not only does he sing and play quite a few instruments, he also writes all the lyrics and composes all the melodies - 'cept for "Starry-Eyed" which he had Jozef helping him with the melody, and the drum solo "Elenor rigDick".
Lemmy is a great guitarist. He plays heavy riffs. Light riffs. Fast riffs. Slow riffs. He sends you off to euphoria with his guitar solos, and he catches your attention with the tight patterns he creates.
Miso is maybe the most talented drummer in popular music (or rather, soon to be (if everything works out like it could/should for The Bridge) popular music). Especially considering his age - 14-15 (the album is recorded between January 2004 and June 2005). He displays quite a few nifty tricks. He's highly skilled. The kid knows what he's doing.
Jaro helps to make the music more comfortable and pleasant. He is able to create mellow and soft basslines, as well as more upset and furious stuff.
The ex-drummer - Roman, is handling the drumset on two of the tracks. "My Private Star" and "Venované Nikomu". There isn't much to say about him. It's hard to judge him, only having heard two tracks. But he's adequate on those two tracks. He keeps the melody running nicely, but he's a bit more simplistic than Miso in his style of drumming.
That is the impressing line-up of the band called The Bridge. A modern, emotional and passionate rock band. With heaps of talent. And that band has made this album.
Citizen Bridge. An enjoyable listen all the way through.
It all starts off with the excruciatingly catchy "You'll Be There". An un-orthodox and brilliant way of handling the drums. Melodic and harmonic guitars. A very pleasant bassline, that kind of makes you relax. And then there's dAsK's dark and lovely voice, which really adds a lot to the flavour. The lyrics are lovely. "
Holding, breathing, nose is bleeding/when you love me you’ll be there" states dAsK. Cute. A bit... twisted. But cute.
And that is the recipe to quite a lot of the songs on this album. Catchy and yet complex melodies, impressing vocals and half-poetic half-down to earth lyrics. Among the songs that roughly follow this recipe are "All About Your Love 4", "Mercury", "Starry-Eyed", "Destiny" and "***ItAll(IDontCare)".
But what makes this album a classic isn't dAsk's poisonous pop melodies (alone). It's the diversity in his writing.
I am now going to continue categorizing (some of the) songs. A bit "harshly", I feel. Because, actually; pretty much all of the songs fit into at least two or three of these categories. But I'm doing this purposely, just to give you an idea of how varied this album is.
So. From the mentioned sugarsweet/bittersweet melodies and on to garage punk rock-like tunes. There's "Garage Is The Place Where We Were Born (Unwanted Little Guitar Suckers Rule)" , a cute little instrumental tune - and "Elephant Man" and "Elephant Man Returns". Two melodic punk-ish tunes, with a dAsK screaming his lungs out.
Whilst "Magic Word" and "East of Eden" on the other hand, are both two mammoths. They are heavy and heavy. And a bit more heavy. Not heavy as in - Fantômas heavy, but about as heavy as rock gets, without crossing to metal. dAsK's lyrics are magical. Like on "East of Eden", where he seeks his maker. "
I wanna reach the sky/wanna take what’s mine/wanna run to know/what creature makes this show/I’m walking down the street/just shades are hunting me/remind me I’m not dead/is it good or bad?". "Until Good Lord Will Take Us Away" is another fine, heavy example of the bands ability to hit hard, in which dAsK is confused by a break up. "
You killed this love in self-defense/you killed this love it makes no sense/you built this love, built this love/to break up".
But from hard-hitting mammoths to dAsK's ability to write borderline epic songs. His ability to achieve a stateliness, making this album stand out from every other album out there. I'm talking about "
Horny/crawling/waiting for the amnesty/I’m here to adore you/I’m here to cure your allergy". These are good lyrics. And they are from a good song - "Allergy", which actually sounds a bit like something off
Without You I'm Nothing by
Placebo. Another song that fits nicely into this stall (that aren't already parked in another stall) is "Another Day", with its beautiful arrangements, and grateful lyrics. "
Every day is a gift that we don’t feel/it’s so sentimental that we’re here/none of us can surely say/that we’ll survive another day".
Another genre that dAsK is able to squeeze in is those darn ballads that we all know and love. From sentimental and cozy on "My Private Star" to a more angry anthem on "Reality Show" - possibly the best track on the entire album, in which dAsK spits out "
I’m so infected/soul-defected/like a rat born to drown/don’t act you love me/don’t act you know me/won’t let these ***ers drown me down", after he said that he "
... tried to hurt my face/‘cos you don’t care ‘bout me/I tried to eat my self," but soon realized that "
... you don’t care ‘bout me," so he "
... tried to break my bones/to make you care ‘bout me/I tried to love you all/but you don’t care ‘bout me". This song demonstrates what hauntingly beautiful lyrics this man is capable of writing.
Now. Moving on to the psycho acoustic pieces with the freaky lyrics. I don't quite know what genre we're talking about here, but whatever the hell 'tis - it works. There's the seemingly "normal" track "Why Sad?", and there's the not so "normal" track "Lullaby" and of course - "All About Your Love 6", where dAsK claims that the "
bed-bug/is under my skin/I verify you have an itch for my head". Not quite sane. But nevertheless, very good (and creepy).
"Silver Gold" is another weirdo track. Some coldwave/industrial feel over this one. Drum machines and the lot, with dAsK screaming "
My whore, tonight you’ll make me hurt".
And oh yeah - you know that drum solo I was talking about? "Elenor rigDick"? It's nine and a half minutes long, by the way. And it's really good. And not the least bit repetetive and boring, as some drum solos tend to be. It's not even skippable. Not bad for a 15 year old, eh?
The songs I haven't mentioned, weren't left out of the review because they are bad. The reason why I didn't mention them was that I simply couldn't categorize them. They fit into almost every stall here.
And that's what makes this band and album so great. The diversity. This is an album every music fan out there should have. It is definitely one of the best albums out of 2006, along with
Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not by
Arctic Monkeys and
Draining Puddles, Retrieving Treasures by [b[A Bunny's Caravan[/b].
Now, let's just wait for The Bridge's sophomore effort...
"
Som svojho sveta pán" states dAsK on the last track of the album - "Venované Nikomu" (the only track on Slovak), which translates into "I am king of my own world".
Well, Tomas. You and your band are the kings of adult contemporary modern emotional rock as well. A truly inspiring album. A rock'n roll classic from the day 'twas released.
