American musician and songwriter Angelina Torreano of solo band project, Citris has released a new audio-visual for her single, “Grand Prize Winner” from her 5th most recent full-length LP, “In Love With Nothing and No One In Particular” (released late last year of 2022).
Citris is the psychedelic dream-pop grunge project of Angelina Torreano of Brooklyn, NY. Citris begun in Purchase College Music Conservatory as a Studio Composition project, expanded to Brooklyn shortly after where she played consistently throughout all five boroughs of NYC, eventually branching out to other regions and touring nationally. Originally a loud, punk, grunge band, Citris has morphed into a progressive, psychedelic, experimental indie pop sound with tinges of electronic music. Citris has a modern sound which could be described as a somewhat 90s alternative rock style with a cleaner, more intricate sonic pallet that is both nostalgic and contemporary. Citris performs both by herself and with a band and can be found performing regularly in the NYC scene and throughout the east coast. Follow Citris on Spotify and on socials to stay up to date.
Directed by friend/musician/director, Camille Alexander and assistant director, Aaron Hartmann (of UK’s honorable modern grunge power trio, A VOID), Citris stuns with an array of quirky facial expressions and a general overall sardonic attitude that speaks to her already well-established brand of overall ‘positive nihilism,’ as Torreano likes to put it. With fake, spray-painted, cardboard cutouts of ocean waves, palm trees, a half moon, and a big red-orange-burning sun, it doesn’t get more playfully DIY than this as the singer-songwriter explores her creativity in hand-cutting her own previously used cardboard lying around her apartment, spray painting the backdrop scenery on her Brooklyn rooftop with the jubilant help of Alexander and Hartmann themselves.
“Grand Prize Winner” touches upon themes of fantasizing about the beach and LA and how a simple change of environment might not solve all of one’s problems but perhaps just by virtue of being near an ocean in view of palm trees, it can simply serve the purpose of the illusion of wellness with the appearance of physical and visual beauty to make up for life challenges as understood in the lyrics.
“You know it won’t change things, whether you stay or you leave but if I’m drowning in misery, can at least see palm trees?” In addition, themes of internal unrest, conflict, and an almost painful desire for more out of a dead-end relationship are brought to light as Citris expresses her frustration with putting her all into her relationship only to be left feeling undervalued and numb with lyrics such as, “When? When’s the next flight? Where? Where’s my grand prize for loving you?,”
The listener can hear the urgency of the message almost as if they were in the room with Torreano as she confronts her former scorned ex-lover about her thoughts of suddenly upping and leaving for LA as an answer to the present turmoil. Torreano paints the imagery as the listener is set up with a more nostalgic, happy memory with lyrics by its nature: “The sun is a liar. It tells me it’s time. The moon is my true lover, he dims down the light. The neighborhood is dying down with every now and then, a scream. I think of who I was last year when it was you and I in those streets” as a reference to a time when her relationship seemed to breathe life. The listener is confronted with the idea that ultimately, “the wanting” and craving for more than the present moment is in and of itself the larger issue at hand (whether it has to do with a relationship or not); this is the source of all suffering. Visually, the audience is introduced to a cardboard beach word where Torreano is the centerpiece singing and playing guitar with quick cuts to scenes of her catching card-board ocean waves on her ironing board made surfboard/buggy board; this irreverent, comical, light-hearted cardboard LA world in juxtaposition with the underlying dark quality of the song, viewers can easily digest this tongue-in-cheek piece of art while simultaneously taking on the emotional (yet relatable) psychological burden.
