Cherym strike moments of gold on debut Take It Or Leave It
"Take It Or Leave It"
Pop punk has, in many ways, moved on from the days of questionably lit music videos – and even more questionable fringes – that filled the TV music channels of Cherym’s teenage years.
The Derry band epitomise the new age, bringing the political as well as the personal and echoing something of Meet Me @ The Altar across the pond. Their earworm 2019 single "Abigail" arrived steeped in vintage pop-punk influences, and was backed up two years later by the Hey Tori EP. Theirs is a sound embedded with nostalgia and fresh air in equal measure, making their eventual full-length debut all the more interesting.
Take It Or Leave It is an apt title for a first album that is, everywhere, a mission statement for the band – now operating as a duo after bassist Nyree Dawn decided to step away from music. It’s referential, pulling both from Green Day and Avril Lavigne. (Incidentally, the drums that kick off "Taking Up Sports" will also transport a certain niche of listeners straight to the lycra-clad scenes of 5 Seconds of Summer’s "Don’t Stop".)
Lyrically the album holds few punches, aiming at incels, patriarchal power structures, and people ham-fistedly misusing they/them pronouns all within the first half. Sonically, though, it feels like it takes that long for the record to get going. There’s a delicious guitar solo on "The Thing About Them" that’s aching to be cranked up just a little bit more, while the final choruses of "Colourblind" and "Alpha Beta Sigma" feel slightly too shy to go as hard as they could.
Tucked in the centre of the record, though, is its greatest surprise: the acoustic, tender ballad "Binary Star", its soaring final chorus is the first truly transportive moment of the album. It’s followed by "AW TYSM", where they seem to crack the code both lyrically and literally; “Don’t fix me / When I’m not even broke”. The track is almost a blueprint for structuring a pop-punk song but, far from feeling formulaic, it’s one of the best on the record. The rest of Take It Or Leave It follows that example, outstripping the first half and crashing to a victorious end on the anthemic "It’s Not Me It’s You".
Obviously, Cherym are not the first band to stand accused of holding back on their debut album – and it’s hardly a cardinal sin anyway. Take It Or Leave It is a good album and, in a lot of places, it’s great. The fact that they’ve left room to grow only makes their future offerings more exciting.
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