“I wanna be everything you despise,” Cherry Seraph sings on her catching new track “despise,” a thorough pop success from the West Yorkshire-based artist. Lines like “I hate everything you stand for, and yet I need you to want me more,” resemble the complexities of relationships, matched here with an intriguing synth-forward pop production.
Reflective, reverbed backing vocal adornments and spacey synth tones construct a melodic appeal throughout, with multiple striking structural shifts. The playful key-forward segment after the one-minute mark — “I wanna see the planets align in the sky,” — is especially entrancing, into the “you despise,” ominousness. Whereas Cherry Seraph’s previous debut EP touted a lighter, lusher sound, she succeeds here with a more unabashed charm, the production influenced by ’70s punk albums.
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This track and others featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Best of April 2022’ Spotify playlist.