Charly Bliss - Forever Album Review
Plus: Dan's *grand romantic gesture*, and a preview of Friday's interview with CB's Eva Hendricks
Editor’s note: the introduction to this week’s interview with Eva from Charly Bliss went long, so I’ve decided to parcel it out. You can read my review of their new album, Forever, below. I’ll share the interview Friday :)
Dan and I were in ninth grade when, against his better judgment, I convinced him to perform a grand romantic gesture for his then-girlfriend, Nina1. I forget why ; what antecedent action led to this extremely avoidable conclusion.
Was it because they had a fight? Because it was Valentine’s Day? I don’t know.
What I do know is that Dan stood under a cold gray sky that afternoon and surprised Nina, singing the first verse and chorus of James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful” as I strummed along on my dad’s Takamine guitar.
He gave her some jewelry.
She cried.
Afterward, I think, the three of us went for pasta.
Dan and I haven’t spoken about that afternoon in years, maybe since the plates were cleared. It is perhaps the only secret I’ve kept for him: that I bore witness to his atypically dramatic proclamation of love. That I encouraged him to do something so pure that it crossed over into the realm of cringe.
It’s embarrassing to love, to “extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth”. It requires us to expose ourselves, to open ourselves up to discomfort.
It’s easier and more protective to concentrate our feelings into grand romantic gestures, to stand on the fire escape with a bouquet of roses than to cook someone dinner and ask them how their day was. And yet, in my experience, it’s the small moments – the things we do for ourselves, for our parents, our partners without even thinking – that make a lasting impression.
Charly Bliss’ forthcoming album, Forever, out at midnight, is an ode to small moments. An anthemic anthology that attempts – and often succeeds – at capturing a nuanced look at love in the modern age. Self-love, parental love, platonic love, romantic love. It’s all here, crystallized in hooks and common 4/4 time.
Coming more than five years after their last full-length, the album exists as an act of radical conviction, with Charly Bliss confidently reestablishing themselves after the hiatus. As singer and guitarist Eva Hendricks told me in our conversation, set to publish tomorrow, “It takes time to make something you’re proud of.” While 2019’s Young Enough seemed content to expand on the band’s 90s alt-rock influences, Forever finds the quartet leaning into 2010s poptimism, with chunes like “Calling You Out,” “I’m Not Dead” and “How Do You Do It” occupying the same glittery stratosphere as MUNA and Lover-era Taylor Swift.
At times the sensitivity runs the risk of turning saccharine, of sounding cringe. But who cares?
In this cynical age, there’s something deeply life-affirming about moving through the world with an open heart. About allowing yourself to be vulnerable, or even cringe, and extending others the same grace.
I think this feeling applies to art as well.
Some people might be able to hear a song like “Back There Now,” or “Nineteen” and feel absolutely nothing. But I am not one of them.
In the 2005 comedy Wedding Crashers, Owen Wilson’s character tells Rachel McAdams that “True love is the soul's recognition of its counterpoint in another.” Listening to Forever feels kinda like that.
It feels like surrender.
It feels like being seen.
Proper Chunes:
“Back There Now”, “Nineteen”,“How Do You Do It?”
Proper Lyrics
You had a death wish
I already know
I wanted to believe that I was out of control
Sometimes I miss you, but I already know
A boy like you would hang me if I gave you the rope!
(from "Back There Now")I’d wish that I fucked up least twice as much and had like double the fun
(from "I'm Not Dead")Face of an angel
You’re just like heaven
I die a little just to be let in
(from "Nineteen")Nina is a pseudonym to protect the innocent.