Review: Forever by Charly Bliss released via Lucky Number Music

After a five-year album break Charly Bliss have released third full length, "Forever." While I, myself, am not at all familiar with Charly Bliss outside the context of this album and was sort of surprised having had missed out seeing as they seem to have a pretty large following.

For a listener who made it out of an abusive relationship, "Calling You Out" feels like its calling me out. It is very hard to love and be loved afterwards no matter what the circumstance. I was in a fourteen-year relationship I had mentally checked out of three years prior, and yet when I got into a new one it still started in a destructive place because of the strain. On "Nineteen" this is dissected even more, how can you love someone so genuinely, be so entranced by them, and yet still be at each other's throats? The actual relationship, or relationships, on Forever do evolve beyond this point, however. On "How Do You Do It" the lesson seems to be the only way to withstand commitment is to see it through, but I almost feel like this misses the point. Commitment is about seeing it through with someone who will see it through with you and won't take advantage of your patience. All of this ends in a positive place, "Easy to Love" is about trusting someone to see all these things through with you. Trauma is hard on the person surviving it and the person enduring it with them, but eventually you will find someone to do this with you if you're just as patient with them. All the talks on relationships aside, "I Don't Know Anything" is the biggest tell of who this band is at their core. These lyrics are about wanting to succeed but understanding the impossible amount of work it takes to even get your foot in the door. The line about being nineties revivalists and "betting on yourself and losing every day" tells me a lot about this singer. A vocalist who believes in themselves so much but understands at their core belief is not enough. I do recognize this is less of an assessment of the sound and more a musing on the subject matter of the record, but I wanted to put this up as I felt this band and this album deserved to be called attention to. As I said I'm not aware of Charly Bliss' history, but this is a good and quick pop rock record with no real skips or blemishes to be found.

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