Charly Bliss are unabashedly fun. Between their first two albums, the songs bubbled with strains of grunge-y, Weezer-indebted fuzz and ’80s new wave, but power pop has always been their guide. With their third LP, FOREVER, the Brooklyn four-piece shamelessly dip further into the “pop” side. Tracing back to Eva Hendricks’ time in Australia, the remote writing sessions brought forth freedom and experimentation. No clear deadlines or tour dates loomed, which gave the members — Eva, guitarist Spencer Fox, bassist Dan Shure, and drummer Sam Hendricks — plenty of time to dream up whatever they wanted. The result is a collection of tremendously bright songs — a lucid evolution of their fizzy sound that reflects their wide-eyed love for one another. Fueled by feeling, decade-long friendships, and superb musicianship, the songs explode with heart-on-sleeve euphoria — best heard on early previews like “Nineteen,” “Waiting For You,” and “Calling You Out.”
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“[The album] celebrates the big love between the four of us and the life we’ve fought for and built together,” Charly Bliss say. “The lyrics are head over heels, overflowing with romantic love, friend love, crushes, and the hurricanes of feeling that accompany all the massive shifts of growing up. We fell back in love with making music through this record.” Head below to see a handful of tracks that shaped its creation.
Loudon Wainwright – “Unhappy Anniversary”
I will always be chasing the lyrics to this song. I think it’s the simplest, best take on heartbreak and nostalgia and how the first person to break your heart stays with you forever. —Eva Hendricks
HAIM – “The Wire”
Just a perfect song from one of the best bands around. The song feels so big even though the production is pretty understated. We used HAIM multiple times as a production reference throughout the record because they just do it so well. —Sam Hendricks
MUNA – “Good News (Ya-Ya Song)”
I wanted our record to sound the way this song makes me feel. It’s so free, explosive, introspective, beautiful, existential, dreamy…ugh! I love it. MUNA were hugely influential to us while we were working on FOREVER. —Eva Hendricks
Paramore – “Hard Times”
Total banger from start to finish. Anyone that has seen us live knows we have an obnoxious amount of energy onstage, and we need to write songs like this so we have an outlet to let it out. Paramore forever. —Sam Hendricks
Charli XCX – “claws”
One of my favorite love songs about being totally consumed and obsessed with your crush. I also just love when a baddie like Charli goes mushy on a song. Always gets me! —Eva Hendricks
Death Cab for Cutie – “Different Names for the Same Thing”
It takes a special song to be able to just transport you somewhere else immediately upon listening. That’s what this song does for me, and it’s something I tried to do on a song like “Nineteen” and a few others. Those first few notes have so much impact and just completely establish the atmosphere of the rest of the song. —Sam Hendricks
Samia – “Big Wheel”
So much of making this album was centered around falling back in love with singing. I had a car for the first time since I was a teenager and was just driving around listening to so much Samia, Rett Madison, Raffaella, and singing along with them and wondering what it would feel like in my voice to sing like someone who believed that they were free and beautiful, instead of singing like someone who believed that they were messed up and awful inside. —Eva Hendricks
Peter Gabriel – “The Book of Love”
Gives me chills every time. Partially because I associate it with the finale montage in Scrubs and partially because it’s such a beautiful rendition. There is a ton of emotion behind our music, and this song has definitely always been an inspiration. —Sam Hendricks
The Chicks – “Wide Open Spaces”
My favorite song as a child came back out of hiding and reached me again as an adult! I was in Australia driving through never-ending cane fields and rain forests and staring out at a forever ocean and felt like all of my dreams that I didn’t even know I had were coming true. Wide! Open! Spaces! —Eva Hendricks
Taylor Swift – “Wildest Dreams”
Another banger that feels huge without ever going crazy with the production. Love a song like this that never fully introduces a big drum part. Definitely served as an inspiration for “Here Comes The Darkness.” —Sam Hendricks
