![Cherry Chola squats in front of a pink electric guitar. She wears a caramel brown wig and is dressed in a black bikini top and small shorts. The rest of the image is graphic design heavy with a diffused blur from blue [centred around cherry] to baby pink.](https://media.fbi.radio/images/8eda73b0ef265c408443cd7f8cfa539a-320x320.jpg)
With songwriting inspired by old diary entries and a hazy, 90s rock-inspired sonic palette from producer Chico Sonido, El Cuarto Rosa sees Cherry give her pixie wings a rest as she comes down to earth.
Cherry Chola has been one of fbi.radio’s favourite local artists for years now. We’ve been able to watch her evolve from the dreamy fairy-reggaeton of 2023’s ✿★⁂ EP, through to the clubbier stylings of her debut album Bimbo Esoterica (Record of the Year nominee at fbi’s 2025 SMAC awards). On her latest offering El Cuarto Rosa, she reveals yet another new, more intimate side of herself. With songwriting inspired by old diary entries and a hazy, 90s rock-inspired sonic palette from producer Chico Sonido, El Cuarto Rosa sees Cherry give her pixie wings a rest as she comes down to earth.
Rather than floating on clouds, El Cuarto Rosa presses rubber to dirt. Born out of a road trip through the Mexican state of Baja California, the record paints a picture of tyres kicking up dust along a desert road. It’s immediately pedal to metal as the opening track ‘Mezcalita’ roars to life with a thick electric guitar riff and drums banging out a speedy rock beat over which Cherry sings “Perdida en el highway / Besame en el highway” (“Lost on the highway / Kiss me on the highway”). It’s fun, flirtatious and perfectly captures the excitement at the beginning of a road trip.
Over the next few tracks, this feeling begins to warp as the tedium of the vast, empty landscape gets broiled by the blazing sun overhead. Whether it’s from the haze of the heat or the repetitive rumbling of the car tempting you to sleep, the world gets blurry. The punchy rock that kicked off the journey melts into something dreamier, like on ‘Desconcertada’ where stuttering guitars orbit around a slower, swung beat. In this haze things start to look different: the trees seem to resemble past connections and mirages of the people you wish to see most emerge from the sand. And here, in the delirium, is where you enter El Cuarto Rosa.
Translating to “The Pink Room”, El Cuarto Rosa is a place buried in the subconscious where all the guardrails melt away. Secrets are freely available like books on a shelf and thoughts, feelings and anxieties paint the walls. And it’s here that the songs on this album take shape. Telling stories of heartbreak, beauty and growth, Cherry Chola tries to make sense of these feelings through music. Through this process she becomes “Ángel De La Música”, a being that floats on the melodies of the wind, free from the chains of others’ expectations and desires.
“I flow with the wind, never do what I’m told. Desert sun on my skin, listening to rock n roll.”
As the haze clears and reality comes back into focus, it’s clear that time has passed. The sun has set, the nostalgic rock has given way to sultry dance beats. The lights of a nearing city create a warm glow on the horizon ahead. Memories of El Cuarto Rosa quickly begin to fade, but the effect of the stories that were told lingers. And while in reality one relies on wheels strapped to an engine to get around rather than soaring through music itself, the freedom and confidence that came from Ángel De La Música remain.
Words by Jim Kretschmer