Dustin's Best of 2017, #4: Charly Bliss - 'Guppy'

What do I even say about this album? I listened to it after reading about Charly Bliss for the first time on The AV Club in April. My immediate reaction was wondering how I hadn't heard of them sooner. As a rather large consumer of pop music, Guppy was everything I didn't even know I wanted from a band in 2017.

I know that this album has been near the top of plenty of publications' end of year lists and I'm pretty sure they all go into great detail about what makes this album so good. Charly Bliss have all the makings of what made 90's power-pop and garage bands so fun, and if we lived in another era, they would have certainly been a mixtape band. I can imagine it now: "Scare U" for your high school crush, "DQ" for your younger cousin who just needs a nudge in the right direction to start liking good music, "Glitter" for yourself after your high school crush inevitably turns you down (or a heartbroken friend). It's all there.

I had the pleasure of seeing Charly Bliss play a sold out show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg and it might have been one of the best shows I went to in 2017. When I left, the only thing I could think of was how amazing it'll be to see this band in a decade from now. And then my fantasy was born: Years from now, I'll be watching them from backstage and Eva will wink at me mid-performance, and I'll make the same dumb face that Ben Wyatt makes when Kay Hanley winks at him during the Unity Concert. I won't even need to interact with her past that moment- I'd be too embarrassed or star struck to say anything anyway, so I'd settle for a wink.

Even though I wish I had discovered Charly Bliss sooner than I did, I'm also glad that I'm on board now. Guppy is a fantastic album from front-to-back.

Stream it below.

Recommended tracks: "Percolator," "Glitter," "Black Hole," "Scare U," "DQ," "Julia"


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