CITIZEN

TIME - CITIZEN The Artist: Song Review

CITIZEN (not to be confused with Citizen the band) is a musical artist named Phineas J. Peters. He’s a singer-songwriter in the US known for his off-the-charts hook and visual effects (VFX) work predominantly on Instagram and TikTok. CITIZEN and his team of friends, who assist, have made a boatload of viral reels where he calls them “magic tricks.” Sometimes, he has shown a behind-the-scenes reveal after a series of reels, or given a playful, elusive version of the setup, cutting from point A to B upfront, and vice versa.

Obviously, I’m not a social media expert, but of course, simple yet mind-bending creative direction and smart VFX work that captures the audience right off the bat is a key way to drive others towards your music—wins over the notorious algorithms, and he has consistently made cool reels along with his girlfriend faced with fictional OMG near-death scenes often, everything to her falling off a ladder, jumping to a scene catching her, saving her from a speeding car, and cake clothing smoosh. There was one recently if I recall where he created a MacGyver-like rain effect via a garden hose and poked holes in it with a heated up fork, and as many know through interviews on other channels, he has done some fun things like taking real naturesuqe scenes filmed on location with snow and making others think other things, e.g., with a cheese grater in front of a TV screen, as shown at first on social media, etc. You come across some artists, like CITIZEN, that make you say: golly, I wonder how he did that? I’ve seen a lot of other individuals, etc., on social media getting inspired by CITIZEN’s neat Houdini VFX work as well.

With “TIME," from February 20th, 2026, which is the main song that’ll be reviewed here, that had leveraged a back-and-forth/boomerang effect in reels, and also there were clips and edits with ones leveraging an Antigravity 8K 360 Drone, along with a few others, involving sunglasses, bridges, a train, and friends, etc. I saw a few other Insta360 products on his feed as well. There’s no music video for “TIME,” to my knowledge, but a lot of reels he’s created with it are fun to watch.

Take a look at his Instagram or social media feeds sometime. CITIZEN is another artist out there with stellar traditional and modern VFX work from scratch without any use of AI, akin to CHESUQI, whom I covered on this review series, which is awesome. He showcases that traditional VFX work is still very much alive and amazing too, and that so much can be done without the use of AI. At times, he’s stressed with overlay text, how much editing time went into a video or an entertaining reel to promote his music releases—I could be wrong, but I think I saw a whopping 12+ hours for one single short reel tied to “TIME.”

“TIME,” like many of CITIZEN’s songs, is on the romantic side, and his girlfriend is seen on the cover art, who appears in a lot of his reels, short films, and video production work. Also, if I am mistaken about “girlfriend” or “fiancée” for this review at this time, I apologize in advance. I think it’s sweet and awesome to work on full-length music videos and reels alongside someone you love and to include them in your passions in life, side-by-side, or have them tag along in the journey. The storytelling in videos like “SUN KISSES” feels like a scene from a cinematic IMAX movie. I would say I also love “LIGHT IT UP,” which was the first song I came across from CITIZEN on Instagram. Other faves of his releases of mine are “YOU HAUNT ME” and “VERTIGO.” Also, I personally love sailing movies and at-sea vibes, so “SUN KISSES” and “RIGHT BY YOU” are really beautifully filmed. I’m a huge fan of music videos that have vivid short stories threaded into them.

A theme across many, not all of his videos thus far, is that love is paramount to one’s life and can take several shell-shocking twists and turns. Spending time with the one he loves or being transformed due to how you feel by someone’s presence seems to drive a lot of his more recent music releases, it appears, but there are some of his older and rap-focused/hip-hop songs like “DAMAGE” that aren’t solely on that crush or forever love spectrum.

“TIME” is a song that perhaps a lot of humans can establish a connection with; there are some faces, eyes, and smiles we can never forget that change our world absolutely forever, and it is difficult to be apart from them for hours, days, months, etc. When someone who one-thousand percent “lit up our life” comes back or returns, it is an immense rush, essentially, and being able to be with them until the end of time is a true gift—sadly, not everyone gets that opportunity, it’s one you’ve got to hold onto. If you truly love someone, you respect their decisions when they feel ready, but time flies by fast, so it's important not to waste it, and being with someone you love is never at all a waste of time.

To date, May 16th, 2026, “TIME” has collected over 4 million streams and continues to climb. And I would say I do enjoy his music and style overall, but taking innovative videos out of the equation, sometimes the underlying structure of some of his songs, emotion-wise, feels at about the same level or tone and nature as other releases, or can be a tad repetitive vibe-wise. I feel like “LIGHT IT UP,” and “YOU HAUNT ME,” for example, are songs of CITIZEN’s that have much more of a super vocal swing or kick to them, are comprised of sensational beats, and have a greater human earworm effect than “TIME,” and therefore would be both closer to 5 out of 5 to me. Aside from the intro, 1:52 to 2:04 was my fave part of the “TIME” song, and the string of “clicking tick tock clock running beats” is a fitting and exceptional part of this song, which pairs well with the trending boomerang effect and car scenes CITIZEN shared, particularly on social media channels.

CITIZEN, the artist, has a super smooth voice and is highly skilled at establishing abracadabra theatrics around each release that are conceptually polished, and while there’s no music video for this song as of yet, sometimes artists circle back, create and post ones, though, and I hope he does for older releases. But as it stands on its own, “TIME” is still a slickly produced song that makes you think about the importance of spending more time with the person who has your heart forever. The clock is always ticking, so you should be around those you love. If they truly love you back and want you in their life, then they will make time for you and return.

Do check out his latest release, “COMING HOME” from May 5th, 2026, as well.

Memorable Lyrics:

"You'll stay, we can't be over yet

I checked, last night's the first time we met

I pray time made me yours again"

RATING: 4.1 OUT OF 5

Remember to add “TIME” to your playlist(s) and take a look at CITIZEN's music out on these channels or your preferred streaming platform, find them @citizen_theartist on Instagram and elsewhere.