Cherry Bomb, the Los Angeles-based solo project of MisterWives’ Mandy Lee, releases her debut solo album The Pursuit of Pleasure.
No ballads here, just glittering bangers. Liberating, resilient and full of pure fun, The Pursuit of Pleasure finds Lee embracing joy and choosing pleasure on her own terms. Lee shares:
“Joy is how we survive grief, and this project explores what it means to move through pain while still finding pleasure. This album unravels the guilt, shame and judgment we are often conditioned to carry when exploring, and it’s about choosing ourselves as well as our own desires — stepping into intuition and away from all that inhibits who we truly are, not who we are expected to be. Inspired by my muses — The Birth of Venus, Eve, and the little rebellious firecracker who never shied away from her muchness — ‘The Pursuit of Pleasure’ is an un-forbidden liberation back to self.”
On the album’s centrepiece, ‘Oxymoronic’, glitchy, sleek beats crash against introspective thoughts, with a dose of hard-hitting reality and a sound that might remind some millennials of the nostalgic edge of ‘Like a G6’.
“‘Oxymoronic’ is for the stage of bittersweet good grief when contradictory emotions exist side by side. Healing is anything but linear, and dancing in the discomfort of those juxtaposing feelings has been the way through the messy process of knowing that what’s best doesn’t always feel the best.”
Mandy Lee
The Pursuit of Pleasure is a reminder of the power of choosing yourself, embracing pleasure and finding reasons to dance, even when life gets heavy.
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