Lie Like a Painter

Sleep Sound

Chris Jackson’s musical energies found their home on Wilmington-based Eskimo Kiss Records in the mid- to late 90s and early aughts in the group, Lookwell. The Greensboro, NC trio churned out jangly mid-tempo alt-rock that echoed at times fellow Tar Heel state act, The Connells. But Jackson also crafted slightly faster-paced and more sonically textured music that did not readily fit that mold and ultimately served as catalyst to form Citified.

Unlike Lookwell, Jackson’s Citified project was more firmly encamped in a version of dream pop that owed much to early REM and Let’s Active while also drawing inspiration from The Smiths and Ride as well as the early catalog of UK-based label, 4AD. What started out as Jackson with a guitar and a drum machine at Duck Kee Studios with Jerry Kee in the Triad blossomed into two full lengths (the self-titled Citified in 2005 and 2008’s The Meeting After the Meeting) and an EP (Absence in 2009) on Eskimo Kiss during the back half of the 2000s.

Now, Citified is back. Jackson returns on another Wilmington label, Fort Lowell Records, with Lie Like a Painter, a collection of songs that have lain fallow for some time. Idle time not withstanding, the eight tunes breathe new life into a discography already on solid footing, led by two singles, “Must Forget” and “Sleep Sound.” The latter draws on the experience of putting a beloved cat down and is haunted throughout by an echo-y Casio keyboard response in the chorus that seems stuck in a fog. It is a small thing, but typical of the elements tucked away ready to reward careful listening in each of the eight songs that mark Citified’s 2021 re-emergence.

Citified

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