​Cherry Ember’s debut album, Rad Red.

• Released: 1991
• Genre: Indie Rock, Alternative Rock, Shoegaze
• Total Running Time: 61:29
• Original Catalog: SYNC91 00016-CD ALB-15ST US
• Digital Catalog: SYN91 00016-DD REI-35STSE US
• ISRC: PM-SYN-91-00016

Themes: Dreamlike, Anxious, Haunted, Entrapment, Playful, Joyful, Triumphant, Foreboding, Bittersweet, Soothing, Unease, Vulnerability, Terrifying, Paralyzing, Empowering, and Yearning.

The album embodies the ethereal and immersive qualities of the shoegaze genre, blending lush, reverb-drenched guitar textures with dreamy, atmospheric vocals. With a total running time of 63 minutes and 44 seconds, Rad Red is an evocative journey through soundscapes that blur the lines between reality and the surreal.

Deeply personal and steeped in mystery, Rad Red draws inspiration from a haunting experience Cherry Ember had as a child in her old Victorian home. She described witnessing something she called The Rad Red—an ethereal, hazy red glow that would drift through her surroundings, revealing strange and vivid visions. This phenomenon became an obsession, lingering in her memory and shaping her artistic sensibilities. The album serves as both an exploration and a manifestation of these spectral encounters, translating them into music that shimmers with eerie beauty and hypnotic intensity.

The album is structured in a way that suggests a conceptual narrative, with tracks like The Rad Red I, II, and III potentially serving as thematic anchors. Songs such as Hypnopompia and Hypnagogia hint at explorations of sleep states and consciousness, while Time Tangles and Frozen in Time evoke themes of temporal distortion. Titles like Red Razor, Red Razor and Red Room reinforce the recurring motif of red, which could symbolize passion, danger, or the otherworldly visions that once haunted Cherry Ember.

The tracklist also includes whimsical and enigmatic names like Whiskers in the Moonlight and Siren, adding layers of mystique. Meanwhile, Food Fight! stands out as an unexpected contrast to the otherwise dreamlike tone, possibly introducing a moment of playful chaos amidst the album’s more introspective themes.

As a whole, Rad Red is more than just an album—it is a sonic séance, an attempt to recapture the elusive and spectral glow that once visited Cherry Ember in the shadows of her childhood. It weaves together sound, memory, and the supernatural, creating an experience that feels both nostalgic and otherworldly.