Citizen Smith arrive with their 2026 record Somewhere Between Leaving, a collection that feels less like a polished statement and more like a lived-in diary. Across 13 tracks, the Norwich quartet trace the emotional geography of leaving, staying, loving, and losing, not as grand declarations but as small, human moments. Rather than chasing perfection, they lean into presence, allowing each performance to carry the weight of time passing. The result is an album that feels immediate and unforced, as if the listener has stumbled into the room just as the songs are being born.
Recorded primarily at Sickroom Studios in Norfolk with additional sessions at bassist Bob’s home studio, the record embraces analogue warmth and deliberate imperfection. Vocals are captured in single takes, leaving breath, cracks, and hesitation intact, which gives the songs a striking emotional honesty. Instead of layering and correction, the band prioritise instinct, allowing performances to unfold in real time. This approach creates a sound that feels organic and unvarnished, where instruments don’t compete but converse. The mix breathes, carrying both intimacy and space, as if the band are playing just beyond the listener’s reach.
Highlights include the sunlit pop of “Superman” and “Summer Magazine,” which balance melodic immediacy with emotional undercurrents. Elsewhere, “Considered,” “Wine Bottles,” and “Afterglow” are striking in their single-take vulnerability, where small imperfections become essential parts of the storytelling. These moments feel less performed and more discovered, as if the songs were allowed to arrive fully formed in the room. Across these contrasts, the album finds its rhythm between polish and rawness, offering both hooks and honesty in equal measure.
Somewhere Between Leaving captures four friends making music with honesty, turning fleeting moments into lasting feeling, and celebrating life’s imperfect beauty without artifice or pretension, just heartfelt human connection at its core.
TRACKS
1. Memories
2. Superman
3. Stepping Stone
4. Avant Gardening
5. See You Again
6. Afterglow
7. A Lovers’ Song
8. Considered
9. Summer Magazine
10. Good Times
11. Wine Bottles
12. In My Mind
13. Gravity 26
