Citay, apparently named after how the word ‘City’ is sung in songs, are a two piece group out of San Fran. Formed by Ezra Feinberg and Tim Green who were both apparently well known musicians in that area of the world, which was news to me.

Citay do manage to catch a glimmer of the darker side of classic rock bands, such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath but manage to put their own unique spin on it just to keep things original. The opener Seasons Don’t Fear The Year has a sweet acoustic guitar interlaced with a beautiful recorder/flute that wouldn’t have gone astray in Stairway To Heaven. Sorry, I stand corrected. There was a flute in Stairway To Heaven. A vocal that is thickly laid in reverb crashes in and mumbles over a tom-tom drum beat for the rest of the tracks duration. It’s fresh and very different, but still lacks a little something.

Nice Cuffs picks the record up slightly with upbeat swirling guitars, un-decipherable lyrics, an awesome keyboard break down before a not quite over the top guitar solo finishes the track up nicely. It will probably remind you of Jethro Tull with its medieval influences mixed with a little bit of Thin Lizzy.

Citay’s unique spin to keep the classic sounding music original is by dumping in some medieval flourishes. It’s funny that something as old as medieval works to keep things ‘modern’ sounding, but Citay really pull it off. I like to call it Medievalising, but my Office2000 Spelling Checker tells me that’s not a word.

The rest of this album then meanders into the world of instrumentals, which makes a quite nice fit. Yes, even though Nice Cuffs and Seasons Don’t Fear The Year had singing, it always sounded like the instrumentals were what made the songs shine. Vinter and Sticks are both very down tempo instrumentals with lush acoustics, the occasional piece of distorted electric guitar and the light plodding of those be-loved tom-toms.

I respect Citay for what they have done and the way they have shaped their influences of classic rock for a new audience. However, it sounds like Citay ran out of ideas, or methods to their madness, as too many songs on this album sound alike or follow the same structure. Still, if you enjoy your music with drops of medieval, or are looking for something just that little bit different, Citay will satisfy.