I Dont Want You Anymore (Crystal Clear Vinyl) [Vinyl]

Its been four years since Cherry Glazerr released their resplendent third album Stuffed and Ready, but Clementine Creevy has been in no rush. “Ive spent these years taking a hard look at myself, at my relationships, and writing about it,” she says. “I guess Im coming to terms with a lot of my bullshit.” Cherry Glazerr has been on the road more often than not since Creevy was still in high school, and when the pandemic hit, she immersed herself in a static existence shed been deprived of. “When youre always leaving, you dont have a great sense of where your relationships stand, romantic or otherwise. Youre not thinking about the work that goes into maintaining them,” she says.

Creevy describes Cherry Glazerr ambitious new album, I Dont Want You Anymore, as some of her most personal, raw music to date, a collection of songs that elaborate on this period of self-reckoning. Its the first she produced since Cherry Glazerr garage rock debut, Haxel Princess, released nearly a decade ago when Creevy was a teenager. That album made Cherry Glazerr a Los Angeles mainstay act, and its follow up, 2017s Apocalipstick, put the band on the national map. Cherry Glazerr rough and tumble sound coupled with Creevy witty, sarcastic, occasionally self-deprecating lyricism made the band a joy to watch live, their energy unmatched by the coolly detached bent of indie rock at the time.

Creevy describes I Dont Want You Anymore as a “mature” album, moreso in reference to her personal growth than a reflection of the record, which in true Cherry Glazerr fashion is best described as Extremely Fun. To make it, Creevy linked up with producer Yves Rothman, who best known for his work with Yves Tumor. “I knew I had to work with him,” she says. The collaboration began with a cover of Metallica “My Friend of Misery” and grew into this new record, which Creevy considers to be Cherry Glazerr, fully-actualized. “The songs on this one are songs Ive dreamed of making,” she says.

Lead single “Soft Like a Flower” exemplifies that growth. A murky guitar riff inaugurates the track, before Creevy unguarded vocals enter the mix. She sings of a consuming obsession and is joined on the chorus by longtime bandmate Sami Perez. “Im high on your something,” they wail. “I like you killing me/ I like you killing me/ I like you killing me.” Its proudly emotive, what Creevy calls an “Evanescence moment.” “Its a real losing your fucking shit kindve vibe,” she says. “I wanted this album to be just heart and soul. Completely exposed.”

I Dont Want You Anymore uses the element of surprise to its advantage; each track is a radical reimagination of what Cherry Glazerr is and can be. “Bad Habit” opens with a spiraling vocal loop that Creevy began recording at home and it expands into a delirious downtempo dance track without ever invoking a guitar. “I cant wait to play that one live. Whenever Im free of a guitar and I can just sing… I love having those moments on tour,” she says. The subsequent track, “Ready for You” is sung in funky staccato and the initially spare bassline on the opening verse is eventually overtaken by a massive, staticky guitar riff that reminds you this is, at its heart, a rock album. “At the start of the pandemic, I was writing a lot in the box, what I call computer music since Im technologically challenged,” Creevy says. “It was fun to experiment, but after a while, I just really missed rock. I love rock music – I love how its cathartic and brash and sometimes a little dumb.”

Though Cherry Glazerr latest offers some insight into Creevy private moments, its also a humorous album, one she hopes people dont take too seriously. “This was a really therapeutic record to make, but its also self-aware, and I hope, funny,” she says. On “Touched You With My Chaos,” the album outright loudest song that begs for a scream-along, Creevy becomes a wildly dramatic narrator, one who slashes the tires of her own car, accompanied by strings and the unexpected squawk of a trumpet. She wrote it after watching Gregg Araki Mysterious Skin, and wanted to mimic the sense of desperation the film inspires. “I said that I loved you!” she howls over and over again on the chorus.

Movies have always played a role in Creevy songwriting, and many of the songs on I Dont Want You Anymore can be described visually. When she wrote “Sugar,” Creevy pictured playing it in a dark, seedy club, her deadpan vocal delivery mirroring the grim atmosphere. “That song tickles the part of my brain that loves driving really late at night,” she says. These are songs to soundtrack the listener life, a score to suit any occasion. The titular track makes a promise to an unnamed other, but the repeating lyrics on the bridge could just as easily serve as a love letter to listeners: “In the end, youre always holding me.”