A product of Clementine Creevy’s high school bedroom, Cherry Glazerr is back with their second album and Secretly Canadian debut, “Apocalipstick.”
Dynamic and dirty, “Apocalipstick” is an affirmation of femininity in the most explicit sense. The tone is set with “Told You I’d Be With the Guys,” an unmasked howl for female solidarity. Now a recent high school graduate, 19-year-old Creevy delivers spitting vocals, lamenting the time she wasted separating herself from fellow women, recognizing that it’s “necessary to give a lady love.”
From there, the album pulls you through a punk-fueled carnival, one where floors “smell like beer forever” and rides are long overdue for maintenance. It’s messy and juvenile, and sounds a lot like how eating a lollipop off the ground tastes. A brief respite is presented in “Nuclear Bomb,” in which dragging drums and whining synth accompany the self-aware heaviness of feeling pain “black, like a nuclear bomb.” The smooth blend of screeching California garage rock with lilting power pop tracks like “Lucid Dreams” turns “Apocalipstick” into a box of bizarrely flavored chocolate. Like, you know your mom bought them from a weird, off-brand shelf in Rite Aid, but it’s still really good, so you’re not going to question it.
The one thing that links all of “Apocalipstick” together is being female and not apologizing for it. From the unabashedly sexually-charged “Humble Pro” to the scuzzy instrumental title track, Cherry Glazerr proves that raw power can emanate from a place that is 100 percent female. Released on this year’s Inauguration Day and acting as the center of Cherry Glazerr’s 2017 “Pussy Bites Back Tour,” “Apocalipstick” is an unrepentant mix of politics and art, a screaming affirmation of young women in a world run by old men. The lack of shame and comfort in femininity extends to music videos, in which Creevy is consistently shown braless, unshaven, and in the most recent video for “Nuclear Bomb,” getting intimate with her guitar.
In addition to openly lauding the female identity, Cherry Glazerr does not hide from a woman’s body or sexuality, bringing up issues that women are so often silenced on. With its fearless celebration of what it now means to be a young woman, “Apocalipstick” is a refreshing ode to the modern female, one who knows what she is and will not hesitate to bite back.
