Psychopathic Romantics
Pretty Prizes

"I had no idea
that I would lose my mind at this age..."

What better phrase to introduce an album like "Pretty Prizes", the second, significant work of the Psychopathic Romantics?

If you've already listened to "Altered Education", dated 2007 and self-produced, just like its promising follow-up, you surely haven't missed the aural, compositional, and instrumental sophistication of the group from Caserta. But if you think you've formed a definitive and complete idea of their production through that prog attitude that the band denoted in their debut album, wait to literally relish 'Pretty Prizes': a small, important jewel of this poor, sad Italian rock scene.

There's no use denying it: the first decade of the new millennium has not seen the rise of a solid, valid, innovative musical alternative that looked at tradition with enterprise and originality; Italy has been a concrete example of this crisis.
Very few local bands (and I allow myself to point out, among these few, Il Teatro degli Orrori and the veterans 24 Grana) still manage to experiment with energy and an ability to engage, precious and absolute.
The Psychopathic Romantics, among these few, emerge without hesitation.

Like many, they have sensed the deep, entrenched crisis that, in a sly and perverse manner, immobilizes, limits, and muzzles, pushing to produce what the Many crave, led and lobotomized by these now gigantic media, to continue consuming these easy, damned 'transparent smiles'.
For a gray 'civil' living, of which this group does not wish to be a spokesman.

A 'spoken' introduction like "What Did You Leave for Us?" might recall the title track of the first, already mentioned album of the band, but the surprises forewarned by Mario 'Dust' La Porta in "The Definition of Life" - and already in the album's title - are yet to come.
The rhythmic and frenetic handclapping of "Democracy's Pill", in fact, pleasantly surprises, giving (at least for the first two minutes) the impression of listening to a delightful minimalist pop piece that, unexpectedly, explodes into the most spontaneous anger ("damn my fate, damn my destiny...") that social unrest can trigger.

The spectacular "Free Barabbas", moreover, is a clear example of this compositional evolution: the continuous succession of off-beats is in complete harmony with a labyrinthine and extremely significant text. Innumerable sensations alternate in just under six minutes; the anger and the distorted sound of the best punk/rock tradition are masterfully combined with moments of resounding atmospheres, reminding us that these whimsical guys have learned that even silence is music and use it with skill.
The use of instruments like bagpipes then, ready to intone ' Tu scendi dalle stelle', consecrates "Free Barabbas" as the definitive rock piece, breaking down all the barriers that could separate a band like the Psychopathic from the popular world.

In this album, there is no lack of references to the rarefied atmospheres of their beginnings. If "Silent Venom" and "Ant Farm" suffer from a contaminated and sophisticated rock while "Transparent Smiles" actually winks at Radiohead's 'In Rainbows' and 'OK Computer', "21 [Ventuno]" and "F." result in a strong progressive matrix, distancing themselves from that "society of shit" that permeates the whole record, but catapulting us (thanks to the use of mandolins and traditional oriental instruments) into dreamy and tormented places where it might be dangerous, painful to venture.

"Pretty Prizes", therefore, navigates with an unparalleled listening immediacy among the most varied and diverse sounds, conveying extremely personal and always, always different moods, worthy of a psychopathic romantic. Or vice versa.