Charly Bliss: Forever review – alt-rockers put pop first

On their first two albums – 2017’s Guppy and 2019’s Young Enough – Brooklyn’s Charly Bliss traded in various combinations of sonic sweet and savoury. Pop-punk, bubblegum-grunge, powerpop: whatever the pairing, the takeaway was of an alternative outfit with pop sensibilities, always in that order. Third album Forever comes after a period of change; vocalist Eva Hendricks moved halfway around the world to Australia, while her drummer brother Sam became a father of two. When they reconvened to write music, they’ve previously said, “it had to be fun”.

Forever certainly achieves that mission, but it also, for the first time, unabashedly puts Charly Bliss’s pop side first. The euphoric highs of standout Calling You Out soar like Carly Rae Jepsen in band form, while you can imagine Olivia Rodrigo taking a good stab at Nineteen’s power ballad-shaped youthful angst. Everything on the record, from the emo vocal delivery of I Don’t Know Anything to just about forgivably cheesy closer Last First Kiss, is delivered with high-stakes levels of emotion, willing to put it all out there. If on occasion the album could benefit from a little more nuance, for the most part its wide-eyed spirit wins.