Prozac+
Miodio

Fourth album dated 2002 for the historic punk/rock band from Pordenone, who after successes (also known by many "adults") like "Acida," "Pastiglie," "Angelo," and "Betty Tossica" and after (we're talking about 1997) opening a concert for U2, deliver, in my opinion, their most mature and in some ways most introspective album, a very strange thing for a punk/rock band born like many in garages amidst beer, crazy situations, drugs, and "pogging" social centers.

The album wages war against depression (after all, Prozac is an antidepressant) and talks about freedom, but it doesn't do so with the usual clichés of smoking marijuana or flipping the middle finger at the police; it does so by telling stories of boys and girls who dream of flying away from a gray and in many ways incomprehensible world, boys and girls who feel alone and trapped both physically and mentally, boys and girls like many who live in cities or towns inhabited by provincials, bigots, or conformists who point fingers at what they consider "strange&immoral"; thus, songs are born built on names, songs that tell different situations, songs like "Il Mondo di Piera" ("this is the story of Piera, a true story of one who goes away, of one who loses but does not bend, wants to leave, wants to go now"), "Lola" ("Lola is there, Lola is not, Lola lives only for herself"), "Lori" ("Lori doesn't know what to do, Lori is alone and hurts herself, Lori has never grown up, maybe never wanted to") and "Pablo" ("tomorrow we will see, maybe another will disappear"), more than songs, metropolitan stories, stories of a quiet generation, difficult stories played on easy chords, stories that are born and die amidst people's indifference.

The only cover, also well executed, on the album is the beautiful "Tainted Love," well executed especially thanks to the suitable and beautiful lead voice of the group, Eva Poles, a notch above the singer/guitarist Gian Maria, who when he unleashes his vocal skills is not always convincing. The energetic and touching "Un minuto per sempre" is the most successful track along with "Forse domani," the second a bit darker than the first; "Agente speciali" is perhaps the only track I don't like, more pop/rock than punk/rock, while "Criminale," the opening track, invites you to smash anything you have in sight at that moment due to the level of involvement.

Given that I don't particularly like punk, especially Italian punk, I'd say this is excellent work for Prozac +, a band of which today, after the release of the not-so-regarded "Gioia nera," we have somewhat lost track; a band technically also very good compared to other Italian bands like Derozer, Moravagine, Porno Riviste, or Succo Marcio; I would say a group different in their genre!