Best of Month: AotY #25: Cheem's "Guilty Pleasure" via Lonely Ghost

 


When I took my hiatus this year I missed quite a few records and as a result I still haven’t totally caught up in 2022. That being said, there were some albums that were hard to ignore, some for my attachment to the artist behind them, others for the weight of the community backing them. Guilty Pleasure was the latter. My entire social media feed was captivated by this entire rollout and when I finally got to listening months after release it was easy to see why. From the context of the posts I expected nu metal. What I actually got was a wide array going from nu metal itself, drifting into other sects of rap rock and also arriving at some curveballs; the most noteworthy of which is the 2000s-Fall Out Boy-like single, “Snag,” which may walk away one of my favorite overall songs of this year. Cheem also manages to accomplish all of this in just twenty-two minutes, making it all the more a feat. I’m glad everyone came together for Cheem this year and I’m glad I ended up hearing the record while it's still fresh, though I’m sure it’ll have staying power for me personally.

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