charly bliss: guppy

otm. also add, i think, some rilo kiley song that didn’t exist before this record (“camera”) and taylor swift’s “clean” (“hurt me”)

I need to step away from this album. Wasn't enthralled the first listen and it's been diminishing returns since. Hopefully I'll get something out of it when I revisit it but for now I'm firmly in the fragglerock camp.

oh my god y’all this album is better than guppy

But it so isnt.

I've been thinking a lot of Rilo Kiley when listening to this actually - lyrically the subject matter isnt too far removed from The Execution Of All Things on eg "Capacity", also you can kinda hear how both bands have singers who've come from a performing background and bring that precision of charisma into their performance

It also makes sense because people went off Rilo Kiley when they started realising their mainstream potential too, More Adventurous is the best RK album and also the album where they became more obviously ~refined

i mean i shared y'all's reaction when i first heard "capacity" and "chatroom" but i hear that emptiness as space and atmosphere now

yeah in hindsight "capacity" was a great intro to the album bc it in particular continually shades the space w various melodic elements & the reverberating percussive punctures; and like i feel like lesser bands wld've made the chorus of "chatroom" denser, but e.g. the way the guitar seems to shift from reflective shimmer in the chorus to center of accumulation in the bridge w/o changing tone is why it's so satisfying... if guppy feels gaseous young enough is fundamentally solid; the former is maybe more formally memorable but the addition of synths here definitely doesn't feel like just expansion, they illuminate the surfaces the songs glide across (such that the rhythmic steadiness is the point-- see the way the drums build up by switching back mid-bridge on "bleach", the friction at the whim of momentum-- & also why the great pacing is esp notable). idk i think it's really impressive how they're going for something so different while still being recognizably themselves, altho it also means "this is better than that" is a hard sell

the new album does make a couple songs on guppy feel a little aimless to me

(well a softer word than aimless... a little less aimful, in comparison)

this does the same thing the first album did: nice opening run of tracks, then gentle slump into mediocrity

it's decent music but no better imo. if you put the start of this album with the end of the beths album you'd have a decent 90s pop album

it seems insane to claim this is the best pop-rock/powerpop going but instead of providing loads of things i prefer i'll leave you all to it *shrug*

just provide like 3

speedy ortiz - foil deer for absolute starters

trust fund - bringing the backline
does mitski count? yes
sad13's solo album
mike krol?

pup!

p much all of those records have nothing to do with this one besides being superficially more complicated

the pup record’s songwriting isn’t this strong

lol i need to wait til i'm not tired before commenting ig

anyway the only comparison itt that might make me want to listen to something else instead is bc nothing touches taylor swift's best song

lol i was reaching a little for that comparison point. “hurt me” still sounds like a t. swift song though

Young Enough makes me madder every time I play it. This is the final time. Y'all enjoy, but if anyone says it's objectively better than Guppy I'm cursing your family.

I think this is probably a lot like how I felt about Last Splash vs Pod.

it’s objectively better than guppy

imagine being mad at this record

imagine being mad

I definitely do prefer Young Enough to Guppy already. It kind of reminds me of how I felt about the second Japanese Breakfast album (which ended up as my favourite album of 2017). Everything feels so much bolder, especially with how Michelle and Eva get more personal using the music to talk about recent traumatic experiences (Michelle losing her mum and Eva coming out of a terrible relationship). They're both very cathartic and moving records in that way. Even though they both have more polished production, the hooks and songwriting are still very much there and sound like a natural development of what made the debuts so strong. It's no surprise that they're buddies with Michelle directing the Capacity video.

Right now, Young Enough is my album of the year. I really didn't see that coming after the singles and my first couple of plays of the album.

Charly Bliss aren't very original as a band and probably never will be, but within the borders of the power pop/indie genre they are quite good at what they do.

Maybe the debut is better than the new one, maybe not. The differences aren't that big.It is (and will probably always be for this band) more or less more of the same thing.

one thing is for sure is there is music involved and you can definitely hear it with ears

On first listen, I'm kind of in love with it.

No idea if or when I'll prefer this to Guppy but so far loving the hooks, phonetically and otherwise. Shades of Joe Pernice at his "fell over ourselves all summer" peak.

the best love songs are about self-abnegation so tbh "Under You" totally rules

think my favourites here are "camera", "chatroom" and "hard to believe", still a really solid & enjoyable album

couple of spins and this is good, not sure yet if it's better than Guppy but there are some moments that suggest it could be. Title track is gorgeous and heartbreaking, also really liking "Camera" and "Hurt Me".

oh god, i adore this, hooks are just heart bursting. best compliment i can give is that it's the only thing recently that's managed to tear me away from the go-betweens. these first two records are an incredible feat.

i didn't connect with the songs they prereleased individually but i am in love with this album and how it's sequenced. "blown to bits" is an incredible opener.

I've been listening to this on my commutes and it is simply fabulous. Gigantic hooks, smart lyrics, slick production. One of those albums where I'm looking forward to my next chance to crank it.

This feels like a good-to-great pop record that's really hamstrung by the laziness and obviousness of its production choices. Like, I find myself weirdly resentful of the way synths are used on records like this, like they're just there to add ballast and when you get to the end of the record you realise you haven't heard a single interesting or distinctive sound. Everything's blown up to such an extent that the record feels flat rather than big.

Also like a lot of bands who feel more about energy and momentum rather than rhythm it feels like they struggle to keep things interesting when the tempo drops a little bit. Like a song like Young Enough could really work with a different approach but it feels like a big stadium song that's constructed in the way that you might build a wall, just thudding and leaden and predictable.

^

yeah I can agree with that

I think I agree with that too. Great songs, so-so sound.

I thought the production on this was good and suited the songs.

i guess this really illuminates what kind of a music / Charly Bliss fan I am, but i think "Hard to Believe" is my favorite song here

and i love the rest of it

but

that chorus

Agreed. I think the last indie band that could write choruses like this was the New Pornographers, but I don’t think even they ever had so many good ones on one album.

I like a lot about the new album, but there are too many instances of the campfire indie stomp thing (more than zero). Every time it crops up it takes me out of the song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNneb7pj3n8

i posted something like this in the Weyes Blood thread to crickets, but...

anyone hear the quick wrong note in "Hard to Believe" at 2:06/07? love that kind of stuff.

i can't stop listening to this song.

someone actually commissioned kay hanley to review the record, which is perfect https://www.talkhouse.com/charly-bliss-flirts-with-the-brutal-truth/

I don’t know how to review an album. It’s too much responsibility. Why did I agree to this? Argh.

lmao relatable

i love this

Caught their show last night at the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland, and man was it great. This was their first time playing the big room -- they've played the much smaller adjacent tavern before -- and the energy onstage was just unbelievable. Definitely one of the best shows I've seen in the last 10 years or so. The interplay between Eva, Spencer and Dan is so energetic and infectious it's impossible to stand still while you're watching them. Can't remember the whole set list (I'm gonna be 50, gimme a break) but it included

Blown to Bits
Percolator
Ruby
Hard to Believe
Heaven
Chatroom
DQ
Black Hole
Young Enough

and five or so others. And they closed with an encore of "Mr. Brightside" by The Killers.

(I just realized last night that Eva said her first big inspiration for learning to write songs was Rilo Kiley, and both bands have former child actors in them.)

A couple of phone pics I snapped:

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/62315899_369167847286633_7547021008163569664_o.jpg?_nc_cat=108&_nc_eui2=AeF-BxRmW1Vn9CTRT2cG6w-3dSpJs1NuzK2zogD8HE6ThFJ30bYMxAK9YI41flIA4wJIPO9NfMOgFa2imSog3JM09lTC4K29PB5IiYzBDv87aQ&_nc_oc=AQkVjNaZSh5kgY5d9npRAYO98Vx_dJxryOSo67L6MpnFJu0JEJkZXRJKXWmvMuv8yE45-qY3jS-Ry9WdTgOg8EX6&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=49486b925ab34df67e4dea3452900bf3&oe=5D9A2D53

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/62508100_369167880619963_3747143190898016256_o.jpg?_nc_cat=109&_nc_eui2=AeGI_rMobmsTrzuGbsKH_JxtWu0nK22JN_0kYMZ-Ox9a9_ZEaQlR_7Hno-7GcDn3B85XMwr20OsBe1uFKqcS_JqMq7BzSOfZC3VaYJaazqbfSw&_nc_oc=AQlwb62G7oRhBrTPVa3XREnAL-dciaN7AW-a-igGg4M78362GwiN_VR6v0F8WPUa2Cnc_9BwFEt5rL94jtNEMOJh&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=d90b96b629dcaeab509c8b57009d7c32&oe=5D9DE151

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/62239347_369167960619955_6306320813091979264_o.jpg?_nc_cat=100&_nc_eui2=AeGWva-Z_AG6tfTBmFQPbxM3SWLq5nprIZceR6pBIpJ_Zt8rslzUyoANdTakaCYjJA8-Q_RiKjcDd6_t8p27zQMvZc51IicxRBkn3E17RygygA&_nc_oc=AQkHDObdRKpkp6_XIcqJAFwq_vSfGQW1BfIL6zuhGaYxF5Kc4YiSuWiiQYdLc3yQoYeTgbuiZbUVw6nPSGcBTnfN&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=168d6577f85fdb5dc31528f2d9c3bb35&oe=5D9D3266

aw i love those photos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwszMAktc-M

Christgau's take: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/a3xqmj/robert-christgau-reviews-charly-bliss-young-enough

He mostly likes it except (typically) wishes it was a bit more political and not so bougie.

hey so just to check in we now all agree that the new one fucking owns right? good