Review Summary: cool when it wants to be, which is pretty much the entire time
In under 30 minutes, Cheem continues to crumple up blueprints laid out for each genre they confront. Guilty Pleasure simply doesn’t fit into one box, it would do the band a disservice - when vocalist Sam takes centerstage, the pop-punk of Fall Out Boy might come to mind. But when Skye comes barreling in with a frenetic rap verse we’ve clearly entered some sort of nu-metal territory. In the same vein, the instrumentation isn’t something that could be described with just one genre. Pay2Play flicks the dial between high energy punk riffs and a lighter, funkier section that fits the rapped guest verse swimmingly. These lighter sections pop up throughout the album, almost always accompanied by a few bars courtesy of Skye.
The rapped verses really do give everything a ‘nu-metal’ tinge, but there’s just too much going on elsewhere to slot it in there. Overload exemplifies this. Guilty Pleasure certainly takes a maximalist approach to its production, and that almost always works.The band is a fan of the hyperpop ethos, and with its pitched vocals and solid wall of sound the back half of Overload sounds like a 100 gecs B-side, for better or worse. When it’s not approaching penis music levels of chaos, it’s still always a busy affair in the best way. Snag doesn’t even hit the two minute mark, but it’s an early highlight with its manic opening riff, the incredible earworm that is '
so you wanna hurt me? I think I can handle whatever you put me through / if i was in your shoes, i’d wanna hurt me too / and i could do it much better than you!’ AND it’s sweet, hard hitting slap bass.
Guilty Pleasure is a busy record on all fronts, but what’s it all about? Thankfully this isn’t tough to parse - most of the music is either about the music industry and the DIY scene the band finds itself in, and not caring about what people think. Cheem Szn is the magic page of the album with the line ‘
there’s no pleasure in feeling so guilty’, in reference to how music critics and others opinions can warp the enjoyment of your own tastes. It’s one of the record's funkier tracks and Skye spends a verse dunking on those who try to keep trends in line, those who put down anything that doesn’t fit in a scene’s mold. It’s fitting for a band who plays leapfrog with genres, changing the vibe with every subsequent track. Elsewhere are tunes in which washed up rock stars are belittled for pandering to the masses, trying to make a career out of music on a budget, and sticking to your guns as an artist and a band.
In under 30 minutes, Guilty Pleasure takes you on a trip loaded with insane production, incredible hooks, a whole host of channeled influences, and the occasional fire verse. In some ways the short run-time is a blessing - it wasn’t until I threw it on a second time, headphones in, that I started to hear the little details that make up this manic cocktail of genres. It’s more than just pop-punk with a groove, and the pleasure I’ve got from repeated listens? Glad to say it comes with no guilt.
