[REVIEW] CERISE X BREAKFAST ROAD

Breakfast Road (@breakfastroad) are making a statement with their latest project Cerise. With washed-out production and pseudo-nostalgia galore, the boy band aims for the sweet spot between bubbly Y2K-inspired hyperpop and indie for their ‘mixtape mini-album video game OST’ (their words, not mine).

Cerise’s video-game startup intro leads nicely into the first track, a dreamy cut filled with arcade-style synthesizers and gorgeously wide vocals. Can You comes third in the tracklist, slowing the pace of the project down before another interlude introduces Devotion Is, featuring Dylan Atlantis (@uselessaliens).

Cerise Cover Art (Image Credit: Provided by artist)

The lead single is perhaps the most complete offering from Cerise. I mean, who else has Playboi Carti-esque delivery on a gliding synth in their intro? Heartfelt lyrics and guitar backed vocal performances from both Dylan Atlantis and Breakfast Road push the track into its key changing bridge and beyond. A certified hood classic to be, surely.

We’re then hit with one70, the most hyperpop sounding track of the mixtape thus far. Channeling a more palatable 100gecs sound, Cerise runs full steam ahead on its sixth track. The next two cuts are no strangers to the Breakfast Road fans; Right Now and Don’t Wait (with local legend Zion Garcia [@ziongarcia]). Within the context of Cerise, these previously released tracks sound much fuller and stronger than before.

G0again lays on the Sour vibes (a compliment, I promise), with some very Kevin Parker-style guitars floating around the verses. A stuttering drum beat gives the track a nice quirkiness, before descending into a slowed ending that spirals into Hello, Hello, the final offering from Cerise.

Cerise Tracklist (Image Credit: Provided by artist)

The mixtape’s closing song begins quite bossa (I think), but later picks up into a cute bop that sees the boy-band at their most endearing. Oh yeah and there’s two key changes. Optimistic as ever, Cerise finishes with the feeling that the title refers to more than a colour. 

Maybe Cerise is everything we hope the post-lockdown period will be; catching up on the missed youth of the last few months to a salmon-tinged sunset (sans skydiving without a parachute). 

Stream the mixtape here.