SWEEPING PROMISES - You Say I Romanticise

The post-punk duo from Lawrence, Kansas has a crystal-clear sense of purpose when it comes to their recorded output: capturing the energy of their live shows. Hence the decision by bassist/singer Lira Mondal and guitarist Caufield Schnug to bring in drummer Spenser Gralla for their new album, "You Say I Romanticise". The romanticism of the title isn't really found in the music itself — a series of raw, thundering riffs and rhythmic bodies — but rather in the anguished lyrics, which still betray a naive innocence that works for now, though it risks wearing thin over time.

With a catchy, convincing single like "Shooting Shadows", Sweeping Promises try to widen their fanbase, packing their songs with jagged guitar hooks, as on "Last Man" (inspired by a novel by Mary Shelley), solid walls of garage-rock, and the throbbing bass sound that locks in with rough-edged guitar textures on "Cocoon".
In this quest for the philosopher's stone of the new punk-rock, the band chases both the myth of Queens Of The Stone Age — just listen to the obsessive rhythm of "My Friend's An Entom" — and the verve of the Ramones on the euphoric "Rapture, Or...", landing on the most cohesive album of their career yet, helped along by more elaborate songwriting, as shown by the rough Fall-style gallop of "Accent" and the deceptive lightness of "Abduction On Camera". What's missing is the eccentricity of their earlier work — those saxophones and synths that once echoed certain flashes of the B-52's; on the other hand, Lira Mondal's voice sounds more confident and more willing to do without the artificial reverb of the studio.

With "You Say I Romanticise", Sweeping Promises keep chronicling the anxieties and paranoia of our times with an ever more defined, less abstract touch — just listen to the excellent "My Anchoress" — leaving the definitive consolidation of an ever-evolving career to the next chapter.

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23/09/2026