Highs and Lows

The strongest song in this batch, and it’s not close. Citizen frontman Mat Kerekes has spent a decade blurring emo, post-hardcore, and grunge into something that never sits still long enough to be filed cleanly under any of them, and “Highs and Lows” is that approach at its most confident — propulsive drums under a chorus that keeps climbing past where you expect it to level off.

The song picked up “best of the week” nods from Stereogum (their #1), Consequence, BrooklynVegan, VICE, and The Guardian on release, and none of that reads as hype now that Halcyon Blues is out. 8.6/10 — the most purely exciting three minutes and forty-three seconds a rock band has put out this year.

Hero image: Citizen performing at Slim’s, San Francisco, 2016, by Orcjorts, dedicated to the public domain under CC0.