Cherym: Take It Or Leave It

Derry’s Cherym are, in a nutshell, one of the best bands out there right now. They will tell you that their youthful influences range from Avril Lavigne to Blink 182 and Green Day. Me, I hear The Go-Go’s turned up to #11.

They have been creating and performing killer tunes for around half a decade now, and each of their previous releases has brought them closer to the mass recognition that would surely have been theirs if they have been around 40 years ago, in the era of groups like the aforementioned Go-Go’s and Bangles.

Singer-guitarist Hannah, drummer and group founder Alannagh and outgoing bassist-vocalist Nyree have personality to spare, and it permeates every note of the great singles they have unleashed – and also a fab EP, in their 2021 vinyl debut Hey Tori – on a journey that has led them to the accomplishment of making a debut album that can only be described as ‘essential’.

Take It Or Leave It is an album that plays like a single. I guarantee you won’t hit the fast forward button at any point during its (too short!) running time of half an hour or thereabouts. Played in sequence, every track will leave you with a feeling of “how on Earth are they ever going to top THAT one?” – although Cherym being Cherym, they invariably do.

If you are looking for something slow, shimmery are shoegazey, this is definitely not the album for you. Cherym prioritize bangers over balladry, and here they come at you pretty relentlessly to induce a feeling of total exhilaration from track to track.

The erstwhile trio has already released four sensational singles from the set over the course of the last 14 months. If you missed last summer’s ‘Taking Up Sports’ you missed a slice of pure pop perfection that, as far as this writer is concerned, was not only Single Of The Year for 2023 but also one of the greatest singles of the 21^st century, full stop. Frankly there was nothing Cherym could have crammed into its 3 minutes and 4 seconds to make it any better – a funny and surprisingly poignant lyric harnessed to a chorus to die for, with a mighty audio wall of sound that the band can and do reproduce in full live, and those fabulous teeny harmonies that have thus far served Hannah, Alannah and Nyree so well and that make them stand out from so many in their peer group.

The album’s other singles ‘Do It Another Day’ and, most recently, ‘It’s Not Me, It’s You’ and the album’s opener ‘Alpha, Beta Sigma’ are equally potent. If they have yet to elevate Cherym to the top of everyone’s professional and/or personal playlist, well, they jolly well ought to have done.

Cherym are queer and the lyrics of their songs, while occasionally ambivalent, often celebrate queerness in all sorts of uplifting ways that you will find yourself singing along with after a couple of plays, however you might identify. The previously mentioned ‘Taking Up Sports’ is and out and out (pun intended) story of a sapphic schoolgirl crush, served up in a way that anyone and everyone will join in with. The fantastic, powerful anthem ‘The Thing About Them’ makes its message clear:

“I Don’t Want To Wait / For You To Calculate / I’m Non-Binary”

‘Aw, TYSM’ speaks loudly in condemnation of neurotypical people who fail to understand or simply just belittle autism, carefully wrapping its message in another mighty pop pounder but not so much so that said message is lost on anyone.

And if you want a couple of minutes break from wall-to-wall exhilaration, the slightly autobiographical ‘Binary Star’ starts with a lovely acoustic, string-swept verse or two, which ensure that the song’s singer Nyree’s time as one third of Cherym was never wasted and will always be appreciated.

Cherym will be undertaking a short tour of selected UK venues in Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester and London next week before taking it to the Netherlands later in the month and adding a few Irish dates at the end of March in support of Enter Shakiri.

Take It Or Leave It is out on Alcopop! Records today.