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Hi Sorry State people! I hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy! I just got over some weird flu-ish type thing that knocked me down for a couple days. Happy to be back at it with the staff picks and listening to a ton of new music in general.
This week’s pick was pretty easy, and it’s Cherry Cheeks S/T. Emerging from the pandemic, this is a solo project created by Kyle Harms. While some of us were deep in the throes of depression and produced nothing more ambitious than breathing and blinking, this dude was harnessing his creativity and putting in the work. It sounds like a punk album dipped in pop. Just a quick dip to give the music some bounce, but without totally diminishing the frustration and general displeasure with life that likely fueled the creation of the record.
The songs are all really high energy with interesting sounds that work well together. It’s super hooky and bass-driven with some great melodic moments, and simple, catchy choruses. There are a few tracks that sound a bit samesy, and the overall tempo doesn’t change much. I also think the album is back-loaded, but there isn’t a song on the album that I dislike.
I guess this is egg punk, but songs like Boxes sound much cleaner and sharper than your typical egg punk. Security is another solid track that’s reminiscent of good old classic punk. Trickin’ is a song that flips the switch and sounds much more erratic, but it’s also the most fun to listen to. The chorus is undeniably infectious. But if that’s not your thing, there are plenty of tracks that keep things from getting too eggy. I don’t dislike egg punk at all, but I fucking hate the name egg punk. It’s almost enough to keep me from listening to it just to prevent discussions that may require me to say egg punk too many times out loud.
The song Gone is a great closer to the album, and for me it’s the standout track. It’s different from the other songs and this is where the distortion is more apparent. It also has a late 70s synthy new wave feel to it, and on this track Kyle Harms sounds like an unhinged version of Rick Ocasek.
Overall, this Cherry Cheeks album is really enjoyable. You may not bring it to the proverbial desert island, but throw it on when you have to clean your house and I promise you will feel less miserable.
Thanks for reading! See ya next time…
-Angela