Haxel Princess

There’s a sly intelligence bubbling under the angst of Cherry Glazerr’s debut album that gives its chunky yet nimble metal-pop a provocative edge. For all its fuzzed-out guitar riffs and minimalist beats, *Haxel Princess* is surprisingly light on its feet, making it a more playful cousin to the ‘90s-era work of Sonic Youth, The Breeders, and Belly. Frontwoman Clementine Creevy delivers the L.A.-based quartet’s songs in cooing tones that seem both detached and subtly mocking. As a songwriter, she has a knack for serving up deadpan high school snapshots (“Teenage Girl”), woozy paranoid sketches (“Trick or Treat Dancefloor”), and unfiltered love/hate confessions (“Bloody Bandaid”). The band slinks through “Grilled Cheese,” waltzes and lunges on “Glenn the Dawg,” and cuts loose with punk fury on “White’s Not My Color This Evening.” Taken as a whole, the album plunges listeners into a dystopian adolescent world where boredom, fear, and lust are redeemed by joyful noise and cheeky humor. If *Haxel Princess* is any indication, Cherry Glazerr are the sort of smart, tuneful, and lovably trashy combo of which rabid cult fandoms are made.

Discover Haxel Princess by Cherry Glazerr released in 2014. Find album reviews, track lists, credits, awards and more at AllMusic.