We are revisiting some of our favourite records of 2023

Clementine Creevy of Los Angeles’ moody and explosive outfit Cherry Glazerr has been on the road with her music, since she started out of high school and made a splash with her unique alternative rock. This album, four years since her last critically acclaimed record, Stuffed and Ready, is her pandemic record. But while some artists wrote about isolation and ennui, Creevy went in the opposite direction: into the jaws of a complex romantic relationship.

Her time at home, she says, gave her more time to reflect upon and pursue relationships in a way she never could on the road. The album starts with the most toned-down song on the record (passionate nonetheless), “Addicted to Your Love,” and ends with the title track, “I Don’t Want You Anymore,” an ear worm of a tune that shows her holding onto something long after it has died. In between is sexual tension, self-doubt, romantic obsession, and the destruction that can come from a relationship you’re not even sure if you want.

“Wish I could meet you with my eyes / I’m sick inside my twisted mind / Ah-ha, wish I was ready for you,” she sings on one of the singles off the record, touching on her own feelings of shame and unworthiness. The highlight of the record, besides the range she shows as a rocker influenced by the likes of Nirvana and Billie Eillish, is the raw honesty of her reflections on romantic love. It teeters on the brink of addiction, with songs like “Bad Habit” and “Eat You Like a Pill.” But there is a tenderness to her reflections as well: “In the end you’re always holding me.”

While this is what Creevy says is her most “mature” album, the music and the lyrics alike seem to be a soundtrack to young love, based more on obsession than any sort of healthy mutual respect. It’s pretty one-sided, which might be the most glaring fault of a record dealing with romantic love.

But she doesn’t claim to be writing the healthiest of love records.

It is visceral, passionate, moody, and as she said, something to provide a little catharsis in the midst of life’s romantic complexity. The songs certainly rock and her poetry gets her (and others’) passionate feelings across. Cherry Glazerr shine like a strobe, and you might be a little dizzy by the time that you’re done listening. Is this what Creevy really wants or is she just addicted? The album certainly leaves you with a high, and the suggested lows that accompany it.