Game Theory
Lolita Nation

Crystal, the comparison seems apt to me. Apt because it is fragile but capable, if rubbed correctly, of producing a varied and powerful harmonious sound.

The Game Theory were the extraordinary craftsmen capable of forging in a completely personal and artistic way a limited edition Pop, refined and incredibly out of the ordinary.

Apt if everything were reduced to twenty-seven catchy, pleasant, and easy-to-read tracks, but here's where the problems begin. Yes, because it is Pop, but the purity of the product is constantly put to the test by the stylistic choices that the Band presents to us in the entirety of the work.

In "Lolita Nation," we find a collection of simple, effective, and at the same time anything but predictable pieces; a sound palette that ranges from the patchwork of synthesized phonemes ("Kenneth - What's The Frequency?" tell you anything?) to nocturnal and rural ballads (“Shard” “Go Ahead, You’re Dying To”) passing through examples of energetic and vital Powerpop (“The Waist and the Knees” “Look Away” “Where They Have To Let You In”). Lysergic journeys on harmonic and seductive chants (“Dripping With Looks”) alternate with disturbed cacophonic searches that are not disturbing (“The Waist and the Knees”), thin marches like leaves in the wind ("Andy in Ten Years") to desert and solitary rides (“Toby Ornette”) up to true empirical experiments of radio collage ("All Clockwork and No Bodily Fluid Makes Hal a Dull Metal Humbert / In Heaven Every Elephant Baby Wants to Be So Full of Sting / Paul Simon in the Park with Canticle / But You Can't Pick Your Friends" – lengthy!).

Constant and sudden mood swings divert the listening experience onto the fascinating track of sensations that the brain experiences when its cortex is attacked by repeated but mutable inputs as if, in a session of electro-stimuli, infinite small shocks were proposed, different but totally converging on the exact same point.

The album is baroque and cultured but completely devoid of useless frills, allowing the extreme rigor employed in the research to blossom into a choral, emotional, and at the same time multifaceted ensemble.

A small great goblet of the most exquisite glass to toast to an extraordinary album!

Crystalline indeed!