With a music video that looks like the best trailer for a new CW show that would put the plot of Riverdale to shame, Pom Pom Squad are thriving on young adult chaos within their latest track that even features backing vocals from the forever icon duo Tegan and Sara. There’s a grand theatricality that comes to their sound with the raw explosive guitars combating the emphatic drums as the empyrean vocals with a nostalgic undertone allows the piece to reach new heights that hadn’t been achieved previously. Melancholia has been a mainstay in their music but they always manage to bring in a subtle nonchalant hope that gives them that extra special charm unlike any band around right now.

Head Cheerleader is a stadium anthem in the making with it dealing with a myriad of high school problems, with the main theme focusing on self discovery. Embracing the uncomfortableness we experience when stepping out of our masquerade costume and into something that is 100% our own, this track is for people who tried pleasing others before realising they only had to please themselves. Being from the UK I never really got the hype of cheerleaders, but with this track I am ready to grab my pom pom’s and join the squad.

Speaking about the track, Mia Berrin from the band had this to say, “Heart shaped lockets and scary cheerleaders and young adult chaos and self discovery and deep ungraceful discomfort. I was also in a really complicated relationship at the time that really pushed me to come face to face with my sexual identity in a way I never had before. I had this realization that the life I was living was designed around receiving attention and validation from men — something I never truly wanted. The result of that realisation was like stepping out of an old skin. It changed the way I behaved in every aspect of my life. I was finally making decisions toward my own self actualisation instead of for other people’s perception. It was terrifying and exciting and necessary. This song feels like a celebration of the discomfort that comes with stepping into your new skin — your own power.”