I'm a sucker for 90s nostalgia, and in the current shitshow in which we live, it seems amazing to me now that angsty rock peaked well before the decade was over. Not that Cherry Glazerr is an exercise in nostalgia; while their music leans heavily on "grungy" loud-soft dynamics, it just as much recalls Japanese Breakfast's dream pop and Metric's synth rock. And, not to pigeonhole Clem Creevy, whose emotional palette is far from monochrome, but a pure strain of anger is a prominent part of it, and in the current state of things, it's hard to believe it ever went out of style. In the album's most cathartic moment, Creevy screams "I see myself in you and that's why I fucking hate you!" It's a sentiment that might look banal on paper, but when it comes around, it's earned. When Cherry Glazerr released its third album Apocalipstick in early 2017, Creevy was, in her own words, an overconfident teenager, and is now more world-weary and cynical. She conveys a relatable sense of wrongfootedness, her jabs tempered with self-effacing humour. Stuffed & Ready, however, is not the dirgy, mopey album it might sound like I'm describing. It's a pop album powered by genuine humanity and meticulous songcraft. I'd say it's "stuffed" with hooks and "ready" to rock you, but I'm not a complete and utter fuckwit. Instead I'll say that in a better world, Stuffed & Ready would be a massive hit, but paradoxically, a better world would be unable to produce it.
