Album Review: Cherie Amour - Chrome Hearts

Maryland’s Cherie Amour is immensely talented. It always has been. Any fan who has seen them live can confirm. 

 Still, years of canvassing clubs in the Mid-Atlantic, opening for major acts while pumping out some of the alternative scene’s best music hadn’t yielded the deserved streaming numbers. 

Then Cherie Amour released Chrome Hearts. The band’s newest album changed everything. Millions have listened to seven-song gem, finally giving Cherie Amour the ears and attention it deserves. Streaming numbers certainly aren’t everything, but it’s heartwarming to see a band this talented take off. 

What makes Chrome Hearts great and what makes it successful aren’t necessarily one in the same. We’ll go over the latter in just a moment. 

It’s great because frontman Trey Miller flushes out his unreal range as a vocalist and rapper, the musicianship spans genres and is elite at all of them while the song composition blends hardcore, dance, R&B and pop-punk in ways your ears haven’t experienced. It’s almost as if Cherie Amour has invented a new music style.

Exhibit ‘A’ is the band’s lead single “Eons.” The Cherie Amour boys recruited fellow Marylander Rauli V to put together what might be the first latin-infused, hip-hop hardcore blend in music history. If it’s been done before, comment in the chat.

“Release Me” is Chrome Hearts most popular song and quintessential Cherie Amour. The catchy chorus avoids bland repetition while the diversified guitar work and verses pair perfectly. Miller effortlessly jumps octaves, even tossing in a rap verse. No one else can put together a song like this. 

“High,” 1800PARANOID” and “Beyblade” are the meat of the album. Cherie Amour operates on a scale from dance to hiphop to hardcore. These three songs oscillate along that scale with fun twists- from Miller’s falsetto on “High” to the saxophone on “1800PARANOID”- sprinkled in. 

“Wishing I was inside of your head/ But I’m on the outside of your bed,” goes the chorus of “Beyblade.” Even on an album as complicated as Chrome Hearts, a song about messy love is useful, if not necessary. Cherie Amour find a way connect with interesting wordplay. And then proceed to turn a tune the flows in wildly unexpected ways. 

But why is Chrome Hearts the album that connects Cherie Amour to the masses? I think the alternative music scene has finally caught up got the Maryland boys. Magnolia Park’s most popular song “Shallow” copies the Cherie Amour playbook; a little rap here, pop and R&B over the there over a hardcore bed. Honey Revenge went from small clubs to Warped Tour on the back of a pop-heavy guitar combo. The Home Team’s most recent albums laid the dance on thick to great success. Even veterans like Broadside have taken a similar turn in recent releases.

The scene changed trends in the direction of Cherie Amour. Thankfully, for us fans, they stayed the course.