Music Review - The New Citizen Kane’s “Ratbag Joy” Dances on the Edge

KMasters
Aug 26
2 min read

At first, "Ratbag Joy" comes off like your standard feel-good dance tune. The beat’s tight, the synths are bright, and it moves in a way that makes you want to follow. You could stop there and just let it play, but if you actually listen — really listen — you start to hear the cracks.

The New Citizen Kane is just one guy, not a band, and you can tell he’s having fun with the contrast. The music’s all light and motion, but the words? Not so much. They talk about nights running too long, money burning too fast, and that kind of high that’s more about running away than living it up. “Dreams lost in a lot of white dust” — not the sort of thing you expect in a song you could hear in a club.

The hook’s tricky. “You’re getting down tonight… you feel all right tonight…” sounds harmless, even fun, until you notice how many times it comes back. It’s not just catchy — it’s stuck, like the character in the song, doing the same thing again and again.

You can dance to it without thinking twice, or you can sit with it and feel the weight hiding in the corners. Either way, it sticks. And maybe that’s the point — the best distractions are the ones that know exactly what they’re distracting you from.

Checkout the YouTube music video and figure out the cracks while enjoying that feel good dance tune !!