Citizen are back with the announcement of their sixth studio album, and it sounds like the Toledo band has no intention of settling into comfort. Halcyon Blues arrives August 7 via Run For Cover Records, led by a massive new single called "Highs And Lows" that pairs infectious hooks with genuinely dark undercurrents — a combination that's defined the best moments of this band's decade-long run.
The album was recorded by frontman Mat Kerekes in his home studio in Toledo and mixed by Tom Lorde-Alge, the veteran engineer whose credits include U2 and Weezer. That's a notable choice for a band that built its reputation in basement shows and VFW halls — it signals a record that's reaching for bigger rooms without abandoning the emotional directness that made Citizen matter in the first place.
It's about unexpected change. You think you know everything, you think you have everything figured out, and then all of the sudden you don't. Everything's different, for better and for worse. Sometimes it's really hard but ultimately it might be for the best.
"Highs And Lows" is the lead single and it earns the paradox in its title — the track moves between moments of soaring melodic release and something heavier and more unsettled, the kind of push-pull dynamic that defined the best work on 2017's As You Please. The accompanying video, directed by Josh Pfaff, is out now.
Halcyon Blues follows 2023's Calling The Dogs, which marked the band's fifth album and a continued evolution away from the straightforward emo of their early work into something broader and harder to pin down. The new album's 11-track sequence suggests another restless record from a band that's never been content to make the same thing twice.
Halcyon Blues Tracklist
01. "Good Fortune"
02. "I Can See You From Here"
03. "Halcyon Blues"
04. "Is It In My Brain"
05. "Always The Last One To Leave"
06. "Either Way"
07. "Matador"
08. "Ether"
09. "Smooth Talker"
10. "Highs And Lows"
11. "Anne"
The album announcement comes paired with a sprawling world tour featuring some of the best support bills in recent emo-adjacent memory. North American dates run through August and September with Anxious, Hotline TNT, Rocket, Drug Church, and Cryogeyser rotating as openers — a lineup that reads like a who's who of the current guitar-music underground. The band will also hit Sonic Temple in Columbus on May 16 and multiple Warped Tour dates this summer.
Citizen — North American Tour Dates
- August 18-19Chicago, ILThalia Hall
- August 21Columbus, OHNewport Music Hall
- August 22Cleveland, OHGlobe Iron
- August 23Pittsburgh, PAStage AE
- August 25Toronto, ONDanforth Music Hall
- August 28Brooklyn, NYBrooklyn Steel
- August 29Philadelphia, PAUnion Transfer
- August 30Boston, MACitizens House of Blues
- September 1Silver Spring, MDThe Fillmore Silver Spring
- September 2Norfolk, VAThe NorVa
- September 4St. Petersburg, FLJannus Live
- September 5Fort Lauderdale, FLRevolution
- September 7Atlanta, GAThe Masquerade (Heaven)
- September 9Austin, TXEmo's
- September 10Dallas, TXThe Bomb Factory
- September 11San Antonio, TXThe Aztec Theatre
- September 15Mesa, AZThe Nile Theater
- September 17Los Angeles, CAHollywood Palladium
- September 18San Francisco, CAThe Regency Ballroom
Citizen have spent the last decade quietly becoming one of the most dependable bands in the post-emo landscape — the kind of act that never makes the same record twice but never loses the thread of what brought people in. If Halcyon Blues lands the way "Highs And Lows" suggests it will, August could be their biggest month yet.