City Club is the fifth studio album by the Southern California rock band The Growlers, released on 30 September 2016 by Cult Records.[1]

City Club
Studio album by
ReleasedSeptember 30, 2016
Recorded2016
Genre
Length49:36
LabelCult Records
ProducerJulian Casablancas, Shawn Everett
The Growlers chronology
Chinese Fountain
(2014)
City Club
(2016)
Casual Acquaintances
(2018)
Singles from City Club
  1. "City Club"
    Released: 2016
  2. "I'll Be Around"
    Released: 2016
  3. "Night Ride"
    Released: 2016

Track listing

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All songs by Brooks Nielsen and Matt Taylor, except "Night Ride" (Kyle Mullarky/Nielsen/Taylor) and "Blood of a Mutt" (Mullarky/Nielsen).[2]

No.TitleLength
1."City Club"3:16
2."I'll Be Around"4:47
3."Vacant Lot"3:01
4."Night Ride"4:11
5."Dope on a Rope"4:10
6."When You Were Made"3:38
7."Rubber & Bone"3:54
8."The Daisy Chain"3:45
9."World Unglued"3:30
10."Neverending Line"2:43
11."Too Many Times"3:52
12."Blood of a Mutt"5:26
13."Speed Living"3:23
Total length:49:36

Other Outtakes

No.TitleLength
1."Late Bloomers"3:56
2."Heaven and Hell"3:38

Critical reception

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Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic64/100[3]
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic     [4]
Clash7/10[5]
Drowned In Sound5/10[6]

City Club received mixed to positive reviews from contemporary music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 64, based on six reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[3] In a mixed review, Jack Doherty, writing for Drowned in Sound, criticized the sound of the band, saying it was outdated. Doherty said "on the whole City Club is full of the type of synth funk nonsense that should have been left alone in the late Noughties."[6] Shannon Cotton, writing for Clash, gave a more endearing review. Cotton said the album had "a distinct retro vibe. Most of the tracks possess a nostalgic groove which wouldn’t render them out of place in an episode of the enigmatic Twin Peaks".[5] In a mixed review, Christopher Monger, writing for AllMusic, said the album might attract new fans, but alienate long time fans, saying the album "may not be what fans were expecting, but it's by far the Growlers' most immediate and accessible collection of songs to date."[4]

Charts

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Chart (2016) Peak
position
US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard)[7] 6

References

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  1. ^ "The Growlers Release New Album 'City Club' With Cult!". Retrieved 2016-09-29.
  2. ^ "Photographic image of album sleeve" (JPG). Discogs.com. Retrieved 2022-03-31.
  3. ^ a b "City Club by The Growlers". Metacritic.
  4. ^ a b Monger, James. "City Club - The Growlers". Allmusic. Retrieved May 21, 2018.
  5. ^ a b Cotton, Shannon (September 29, 2016). "The Growlers - City Club". Clash. Retrieved May 20, 2018.
  6. ^ a b Doherty, Jack (September 30, 2016). "Album Review: The Growlers - City Club". Drowned In Sound. Archived from the original on May 22, 2018. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
  7. ^ "The Growlers Chart History (Heatseekers Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved October 11, 2016.