'Almost Forever' Review: Cheerleader marks a welcome return with their trippy, reinvented dream-pop album
When Philadelphia-based nugaze band Cheerleader released their shimmering debut record 'The Sunshine Of Your Youth' in 2015, they couldn't have anticipated the incredibly warm response that the acclaimed LP would garner from fans and critics alike.
And speaking of its successor, it's tough to imagine that the band themselves would have expected their sophomore album to take quite this long to materialize!
After a mini-hiatus and some changes to their lineup (following founding member Chris Duran's exit), Cheerleader's followup record is finally here, and it has taken nearly five years in the making.
The rather aptly-named 'Almost Forever' is, therefore, sure to be well received by the music community, not just for Cheerleader's highly anticipated return to the musical fold, but also for the spellbinding, trippy, dream-pop elements that weave its way through the 11 tracks of this new album.
Take a listen to one of their beautiful efforts here:
Singer-songwriter and founding member Joseph Haller said that he had been "working toward the sonic rebirth of the band" following their lengthy downtime period, and the effort clearly shows here.
The band had hunkered down with producer Chris Coady (of Beach House, Future Islands and Foals fame) for a lengthy period of time in order to perfectly calibrate their sound at the LA-based locations Panoramic Studio and Sunset Sound to get it sounding absolutely translucent and peachy.
The result of these lengthy experiments in sonic texture are 11 euphoric, dreamy, beautifully layered songs, which have been neatly distilled to a gorgeous, psychedelic, electropop reverie.
Haller hopes this new album will give the listener a proper framework and lucid window into the band’s journey and headspace since the fall of 2016.
"I think this record will surprise a lot of people who only know us from our older songs. I can still hardly believe the album exists given everything we've been through — and I feel incredibly fortunate that it does," said the vocalist.
Have a listen to Cheerleader playing some of their new songs live below:
We already had a decent estimate of the moodscape of this new album, since the band had previously released four singles prior to 'Almost Forever', namely the singles 'Bang Bang', 'Chimera', 'Everyone's Wearing Skin' and 'Things We Regret'.
Cheerleader's second album 'Almost Forever' is out on February 7 via Bright Antenna Records. You can check it out on the band's official site or on all viable streaming platforms this weekend.