CHERYM’s new EP Hey Tori just screams ‘the weekend starts here!’ and from the opening bars of ‘Listening To My Head’ it feels like a litre of Red Bull has just kicked in. When listening to the bulldozer of sound that powers through these tracks it’s hard to believe there are only three band members.
I have previously covered ‘Listening To My Head’ and ‘Kisses On My Card’ for Joyzine and it’s great to finally hear these amazing tracks placed on the EP. Sometimes it’s the simplest riffs that are the most compelling and ‘Listening To My Head’ has a cracker; fuelling this power-pop banger and getting the wheels burning rubber on the EP. ‘Kisses On My Card’ was the first release post-Alcopop! signing and I described it as ‘a 3-minute slice of heaven which opens with some gentle teasing from low slung bass and guitar before the punishing kiss of a chorus that’s wall to wall guitars and floor to ceiling bliss’. ‘We’re Just Friends’ is the most full-on pop track on the EP with a candy-floss tune surfing across the wall of sound and a harmony-only section near the end which is pure Wilson Phillips. ‘Gone Girl’ and ‘She’s A Lot Going On’ close the EP with a light and dark mix of gentler verses that explode with incandescent choruses.
CHERYM, who hail who from Derry in Northern Ireland, are Hannah Richardson (Lead guitar and lead vocals), Nyree Porter (Bass guitar and vocals) and Alannagh Doherty (Drums and vocals). Richardson’s voice can charm birds from trees as well as send them scattering from the full force she can call upon in the choruses and with Porter and Doherty this is a band giving off so much energy they might be an answer to the current fuel crisis.
I feel there should be a new genre called Defib-Pop for the electrical jolt that you experience when listening to CHERYM or their label mates Beach Riot, or Leeds finest, The Shakamoto Investigation and the superlative Defib-EDM from AK/DK. The sheer exuberance of hearing all five tracks together almost makes me glad it’s not an album as I don’t think I could take that much excitement in one location. As ever Alcopop! Records keep signing and releasing stellar records by stellar acts and I’m beginning to think that they should really be running the country, let alone a record label.
CHERYM socials: Facebook | Twitter | Spotify | TikTok
Review by Paul F Cook
Keep up to date with all new content on Joyzine via our
Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Mailing List