Bedroom pop, at least as we knew it in the mid-late ‘10s, has already begun to recede from mainstream consciousness. The singers that brought it to the forefront—Clairo, girl in red, Rex Orange County, to name a few—have polished their sound or abandoned it altogether. In its stead making the headlines is a genre that’s equally as DIY: hyperpop. There are still artists making music in their bedrooms; it just sounds like the inside of a static-fried motherboard instead of the fuzzy daydreams looping inside your head.
Listening to grentperez, then, is a bit of a litmus test for yourself. The knee-jerk reaction of a cynic would be that his music is dated by at least two or three years and, perhaps even worse in the addictive chaos of hyperpop, sentimental. If you’re anything like me though—a soft spot for the big, dumb, earnest romances of adolescence—then “Cherry Wine” feels spritzed with the fragrance of sweet nostalgia, like a bouquet of flowers that brings you back to that first date with a special someone.
There’s a bit of Rex Orange County in it, even more of cehryl’s “sway,” but grentperez has his own sort of blissful, endearing chill. His voice glides into falsetto as smoothly as his pick-up lines (“Those shoes were made of dancing with someone else”), and each word feels delivered with a chuckle, smirk, or swoon. Even the ending trumpet feels tactful and lilting, as if it, too, were crooning. It’s a prom night in miniature, boutonnieres and all, with grentperez ready to sweep you off your feet.