PWR BTTM - Ugly Cherries

Rating:

Punks just wanna have fun.

“We can be nice or we can be mean,” PWR BTTM ring out on their track ‘Dairy Queen’, which is pretty much the perfect way to describe ‘Ugly Cherries’. It’s an album that punches you in the face and then strokes your hair, ready to pick up the pieces. It’s an album full of fuck you’s – see “Bitch, I might be” on ‘All the Boys’ – but with a very human vulnerability that spins a poetic stance on the insecurities of being young, uncertain and tired of all the crap you have to deal with. ‘Nu 1’ in particular is PWR BTTM at their most stripped-back, as the tagline of 2016 “God damn, everyone’s dumb // I’m too old for being young” is uttered over a simple, melodic strum.

They write love songs with a snarling bite and a thrashing guitar; they write pop bangers that are raw and out-there, unafraid to hold back and with a refreshing humour; they’re a duo who throw deuces up at the (boring) and ingrained stereotypes of what a punk rock band should look and sound like. It’s an album that offers up hooks a-plenty and a hell of a lot of noise – especially Benjamin Hopkins’ trademark effects-heavy guitar licks – which shows two people who clearly have a thirst for crafting euphoric, sing-a-long moments but with a certain wink and a nudge. Put simply, PWR BTTM are a breath of fresh air, with ‘Ugly Cherries’ proving that punks just wanna have fun. Sammy Maine