Cherry Glazerr: Apocalypstick review – female empowerment and aural fizz bombs

Fronted by 19-year-old high school graduate Clementine Creevy, Cherry Glazerr have come on hugely since their debut, Haxel Princess, written when the singer was 14. A rejigged lineup and White Stripes producer Joe Chiccarelli have made for a far more robust sound, which channels old school DIY post-punk (Kleenex, the Slits), and vintage riot grrrl via Pixies-style bittersweetness and big angular riffs. The tunes provide vehicles for Creevy to have her say on subjects from empowerment to tweet shaming. Told You I’d Be With the Guys is a cry for female solidarity packed into an aural fizz bomb. Early adulthood seems to fire the more brooding Nuclear Bomb. Not all the songs fire quite as convincingly, but the band sound as if they’re coming of age and still having fun growing up disgracefully. In Trash People, Creevy confesses: “I wear my underpants three days in a row, my room smells like an ashtray.” Ugh.