My Lonely And Sad Waterloo

They Say...

Review by Stewart Mason, All Music Guide

My Awesome Mixtape is the sort of band name one would expect from a 20-something frizzy-haired hipster from Brooklyn, but while 21-year-old Paolo Torreggiani does sport an awesome and almost assuredly ironic 'fro, he's actually based in Bologna, Italy. Other than that quirk of geography, however, this album sounds pretty much exactly like one would expect an album called My Lonely and Sad Waterloo by a band called My Awesome Mixtape to sound: Torreggiani's high-pitched, weedy vocals sing, with uncertain pitch, his own lovelorn and moderately depressive lyrics, while a homemade blend of cheap synthesizers and cheaper rhythm boxes constructed and mixed via a home computer recalls earlier acts in the style like the Magnetic Fields and East River Pipe, though without the lyrical and melodic brilliance of the former or the emotional wallop of the latter. The wholly electronic songs range from the perky, danceable "Napalm on B*** G***" to the doomed semi-industrial buzz of "Hilarious," and in his favor, Torreggiani understands the value of brevity: only two songs on the entire album break the three and a half minute mark, which gives My Lonely and Sad Waterloo more forward momentum than many similar albums manage. But the songs themselves are basically no more than pleasantly tuneful, and only the dryly witty "The Loser Ballad" suggests the sort of sense of humor that helps put across this particular brand of hyper-self-aware indie rock. There's possible potential here, but My Lonely and Sad Waterloo is too similar to too many other records to stand out.