Featuring members of Happy Accidents, Fresh and Finish Flag, cheerbleederz have released their second EP via Alcopop! Records and it’s a real treat. It finds the three-piece focusing on new bonds and reflecting on themes of self-esteem, vulnerability and improving your well-being.
The four-track EP opens with the smooth bass line and twinkly emo-tinged guitar stylings of ‘Say 2 U’. This song finds the band admitting (in perfect harmony) ‘I never know what to say to you. I still don’t know what to say to you’ before veering into slacker-pop territory after letting the subject know ‘You’re like a supernova’ and then repeating ‘I want to get to know you’ over and over again. There’s a more potent sound in the poppy hooks and pacy drums of ‘Disco’. An anthem for introverts who are starting to embrace their self-confidence, it focuses on being more positive and has a line that will strike a chord with so many: ‘I’ve got a pretty face and a million strings to my bow but I was never picked at a disco’.
‘Sometimes I Cry at Work’ is a huge-sounding bop that recalls ‘Parklife’-era Blur mixed with Charly Bliss, albeit with more focus on personal development: ‘This is the oldest I’ve been but what have I achieved?’; ‘This is the youngest I’ll ever be again’. It also has the killer line of ‘Now, the boys might be back in town but the girls… We only play city’. ‘Gaze of Others’ rounds off the EP with an introspective approach: ‘Under the gaze of other, I feel so powerful and strong. Under the gaze of others, sometimes the pressure gets too much’. As the jangly sound lifts the mood, the band reassure themselves, each other and the listener: ‘I am here if you ever need anything’.
