PWR BTTM - Ugly Cherries (2015)

If we’re lucky, the riff on “Ugly Cherries” will go down as a thing of legend. It’s a show-stopping diva moment, like something out of Queen’s playbook or — as my coworker Gabriela likes to say — the toe-tapping grandeur of Riverdance. PWR BTTM’s lead single and title track from their debut full-length starts from there and blows outwards like a bomb made up of frustration, anxiety, and uneasy self-affirmation. “It’s a confrontation: an attempt to unpack my own queerness with humor and self care,” Ben Hopkins explained to Spin. “I just got so fucking tired of wishing I was different so I decided to scream, ‘She’s all right’ until I actually was.” Fake it ’til you make it, and then write a song about it or whatever. The track’s a refinement of the energy the band put forth on their debut EP and recent split, and it captures the tender charm that led us to name the duo a Band To Watch a few months back.