Psycho
by Dave

Album: Psychodrama (2019)
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Songfacts®:

  • Psychodrama is a concept album that follows the narrative of one of Dave's therapy sessions. This introductory track starts with a spoken excerpt from the psychotherapist.

    Tuesday, 23rd of January, 2018
    I'm here with David
    This is our first session
    We're just gonna talk about your background
    Where you're from, any issues you've been dealing with
    So, where should we start?


    The same therapist later appears on the Psychodrama tracks "Purple Heart," and "Environment."
  • Psychodrama was shortlisted for the 2019 Mercury Music Prize. In a video interview ahead of the ceremony, Dave said:

    "'Psychodrama' is a form of therapy and it is just expressing how you feel in whatever way is the most creative to you.

    Some people act it out, some people sing it out, people find their own different ways. And I think for me, it was just about making a track which in every walk of life just sheds some light on me, the person that I am, the scope of the world around me."
  • The track finds Dave speaking on the mental issues surrounding him, varying from pain to insecurities. It illustrates the bipolar disorder that the rapper is suffering from by cycling through his different moods. The first half of the song is angry, energetic and manic; the second half is downbeat, depressive and insecure.

    According to Dave, the track gives a good introduction to what the Psychodrama record is going to be like. "I think it is reflective of the whole album. Some tracks are faster, some are slower... a lot are slower. And I think if I picked any other track it would not be a fair representation but 'Psycho' has it all."
  • Psychodrama won the 2019 Mercury Prize, a prestigious award given to the best British or Irish album of the year. After Dave collected the winner's trophy, he performed "Psycho" to a standing ovation from the audience.

    Explaining their decision, the Mercury Prize judging panel said: "'Psychodrama' is the musical equivalent of a literary masterpiece: a conceptual album about Dave's experience of growing up in South London, structured in the form of a therapy session, which takes a deeply personal story and gives it universal relevance."

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