Sweeping Promises - You Say I Romanticize (Loser Edition) (Magenta Vinyl)

Sweeping Promises’ introduction to the global punk underground was their debut album, Hunger for a Way Out, which ended up being one of the breakout successes in music during pandemic lockdown. In 2023, they followed up with Good Living is Coming for You, a satirical, hyper-critical rebuke of capitalism that made Album of the Year lists for Pitchfork, NPR, Paste, and BBC, just to name a few. Bassist/vocalist Lira Mondal and guitarist Caufield Schnug decided to tilt their approach a few degrees forward on their third LP.

The big theme of You Say I Romanticize is hinted at in its title. Coming from a lyric sung on album closer “Write Lightly”—a narrative about the importance of self-expression in writing being scrubbed away by “professional” concerns—many of the characters singer/bassist Mondal fleshed out here are outcasts, marginalized by society and turned into fanatics for a cornucopia of specific causes.

The visceral songwriting on You Say I Romanticize features an equally visceral musical approach. Sweeping Promises brought live drummer Spenser Gralla into the recording sessions to give the songs a similar urgency to their live show. The frenzy of its execution also materializes in Mondal’s vocal performances.

A shadow side exists along with Sweeping Promises’ love of their artistic community—borne of weirdos channeling their “outcast” status into vibrant art and punk rock music. You Say I Romanticize takes the ethos Mondal and Schnug have developed and explores the obsessive, fanatical aspects of being ostracized and isolated by mainstream society.

1. Shooting Shadows
2. My Friend's An Entomologist
3. Last Man
4. Rapture, Or...
5. Abduction On Camera
6. My Anchoress
7. Cocoon
8. Accent
9. Does He Want To Be The Weatherman?
10. Write Lightly