You Say I Romanticize

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.