The Kid: "Citizen I"

Another decade, another generation of first timers left feeling numb by the big city. And though the Kid—nothing to do with that Bruce Willis film, or the other one with teens spreading AIDS—purports to be from Dulwich, Thailand, one can only assume he actually arrived via Paris, Texas with a stopover in Las Vegas, Nevada where he learnt to sound like the Killers’ “Mr Brightside”. Rich pitch, I know, but Samuel the younger is in fact the first decent moper for the tenties, a time where mould-breakers everywhere know that the best way forward is to grab some processed bass in one hand, a Brandon Flowers beat in the other, to perfect your best dejected look and shuffle your feet wherever you trespass. Just left home? You a borderline tragedy? Secluded on jerky public transport? Here’s the lyrics you’ve been pining for since your irony radar got hungry: “I’m a loser / I’m a lie / I’m a good boy / No city tie / I’m a citizen / I’m a smiler / I’ve blue eyes / Shiny pearly whites / When I fall down / From my throne / I hit a hurricane / I hit a hurricane.” Cornball, I’ll grant you, but as Kid T mixes strings, reverb, and romance into his blistering self-critique, drums boom and emotions clear the runway. The first time I heard “Citizen I” I just smiled politely and saved it, thinking, “This’ll do for iPod nights when I want self-loathing in order to run a half marathon.” Now I keep it close by on my phone, handy for moments alone at work when I’d previously have a sleep on the toilet. Could that be you, First Alternative Heartache-y Hit of Still Under Warranty Decade? Let’s ask Brandon Flowers. Let’s make him suck back all his apologies first.