Review Summary: Really didn’t mean to tell you what you’ve been through
I’m well aware how cliche it is to start a whatever-wave-midwest-emo album review talking about genre cliches, like breaking up after the second album, smoking weed in parents’ basements, lowercase aesthetic, or two singers trading highly specific yet ‘relatable’ lyrics that tug at your heartstrings. And while Upper Peninsula based Charmer has (hopefully) yet to break up after their second album, they do check pretty much every box in the midwest-mathy emo checklist (except this time I think the drums were recorded with more than one microphone, so they’re pretty much posers now).
This time around with ivy, it seems as though Charmer has fully realized their strengths: writing 3 minute sad songs full of interweaving guitar lines and poppy choruses. ‘Dead Plants’ is the first song to follow the cool-riff-intro/verse/chorus/cool-riff/verse/chorus/cool-riffx4-outro song structure on the album, and with great results. Every single time the third guitar comes in during outro riffs (like on the songs ‘Wolf Fang Fist’ ‘VCR 666’ and ‘ Chandelier’) it is truly breathtaking, a testament to the band’s dedication to ensure this album sounds as dense as the lyrical content. Lyrical throwbacks to their first album are littered throughout, a welcome sense of both continuity and progress regarding the issues present on the album’s lyrics.
Occasional hiccups do occur, such as the gratingly poppy ‘Track & Field’ or the inclusion of awkward lyrics from time to time. But they’re part of what gives this album it’s charm; ivy is an at times brutally realistic look inside someone struggling with various mental health issues, and their attempts at crawling back to a sense of normalcy. All cliches aside, ivy is a phenomenal record that proves Charmer is well on its way to becoming a powerhouse in the DIY emo scene.
