Cheryl Bliss; Angels Running After (Grab a Mic)  8 out of 10  Goes well with: Kate Bush, Tori Amos, Alison Moyet

Cosmopolitan pop with an attitude doesn’t usually find its way south of Irvine. Perhaps Cheryl Bliss doesn’t realize she’s a lone ethereal-pop diva in a city of female folkies -- and perhaps that’s her advantage. 

Bliss is eerily reminiscent of a young Kate Bush -- her delicate, girlish delivery masks darker uncertainties in the lyrics. The title track of her debut, Angels Running After, also locates Bliss in the Tori Amos set, revealing her to be a breathy urban mystic who knows how to handle a piano (yet is seemingly free of Amos’ psychosexual baggage). 

She, too, has her subtle aggressions, as shown with the punky spoken word, beatboxing, and whip-snaps in "All I Was With You" and the music-box romp of "Trust." 

Bliss infuses her ethereal chops with enough ironic street smarts to win over, well, just about anyone. 

- Troy Johnson, SLAMM Magazine