The Cherry Tempo
The Cherry Tempo
June Records
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With their debut self-titled album, indie rockers the Cherry Tempo maintain an upbeat pace, taking a few detours to pop-rock balladville. Clocking in at just a little over a half hour, the album manages to cram in every imaginable musical sound and styling. In doing so, the band produces a sonically coherent pop-rock album that would make any Santa Fean proud to call Cherry Tempo their own.
Band members Dave Jordan (guitar), Will Phillips (drums), Javier Romero (vocals) and Jasper Schriber (bass) offer a polished studio sound that plays so great, one could assume a multi-million dollar budget was used to make the record. Unfortunately, in the real world that was not the case; the album actually was tracked entirely in a single weekend and mixed on a laptop in Romero's bedroom for several months afterwards. The resulting songs sound like an electric battle cry being played for anyone willing to join the group's looming rebellion. Jordan and Schriber use their instruments as if they were weapons of mass destruction to produce hard-hitting bass lines and smooth riffs throughout the album.
The highlight is the aggressive, yet subtle, "Maybe Losing Isn't So Bad After All." This track is performed with musical precision, matched by sharp vocals suggesting to listeners that, in fact, the revolution will not be televised, but played on stage instead. The group predicts, "this is a revolution/play it on cellophane over laser beams and electric lights/fabricate languages, only not with words only our hands/this is a revolution." It has been a little over 200 years since America has seen a good revolution, and if it indeed involves the Cherry Tempo, laser beams and electric lights, then by all means let the revolution begin.
