steering clear of the mainstream
since 2001

june 2010

review
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info opinion

Peter Dizozza

"Pro-Choice on Mental Health" CD

Cinema VII Recordings

Genres: concept pop

Cinema VII
321 East 12th St.
New York, NY
10003

Apr 5 - 11 2004

Peter Dizozza's ambitious Pro-Choice on Mental Health album is a "seven song cycle with monologues and mini-play."  Essentially, this means you get seven tunes (with melody and rhythm), and then a batch of spoken word recordings, either with just Peter alone or with other actors as well.  The topic is, of course, sanity - how one should feel entitled to act as they wish without being deemed "insane" or "unstable."  The songs comment on these matters, while the spoken word pieces satire society's viewpoint on the subject.

The tunes themselves are largely piano-and-vocal-driven numbers, melodic and funny in nature.  "Let Me Be (With You)", for example, is an amusing and remarkably catchy number, with one basic (albeit common) message - we should all have the right to be what we want to be.  Meanwhile, the corny Vegas-crooner influences of "The Song of Laughter and Forgetting" make it one of my favourite songs on this album.

The disc also comes with a computer component.  This is, basically, a short excerpt from a film called "The Last Dodo."  It's a bizarre, ridiculous video-clip that will be enjoyed by fans of the absurd.  It doesn't really have a connection to the rest of the album, but makes for fun viewing nonetheless.

Dizozza's opinions are idealistic, and his music reflects that.  Sometimes Pro-Choice on Mental Health can get too repetitive and preachy - this is often a problem with albums based largely on monologues.  However, if you're up for some very interesting outsider pop - with a message - the large base of material on this disc should keep you entertained for quite a while.

85%

Matt Shimmer

[Vitals: 18 tracks + 8 hidden, distributed by CD Baby, released 2001]