Cassie Ramone - Sweetheart

Sweetheart is the first Cassie Ramone album in ten years, a crowning glory for a singular artist who has forged a unique path through the underground. Breaking out in the late 00s with the revered Vivian Girls, to her current status as a traveler on the heartworn highway, Cassie Ramone has survived and thrived. Sweetheart is Ramone’s greatest recorded statement to date: focused songwriting shot through with American tragedies, distorted guitars and tear-stained fretboards. Recorded with collaborator Dylan White in Richmond, VA in the latter’s Valley Structures barn studio between December 2023 and March 2024, Sweetheart is Ramone’s songwriting rendered direct but with a sweeping cinematic quality. Smeared with reverb and scintillating like stars in the pitch black night, these songs fulfill the promise of Ramone’s songwriting prowess.

Ranging from heart-stealers like I’m Going Home or Joy to the World to the riotous guitar scree of the titular Sweetheart, Ramone’s songwriting here is raw and direct, bolstered by White’s perfectly balanced instrumentation. White’s work on Sweetheart blows up Ramone’s songs to epic proportions, with waves of shoegazed guitars crashing and cresting with emotion. As a result, Sweetheart fits effortlessly in with the best of Ramone’s work with Vivian Girls and The Babies. With the emotional vulnerability at its core, Sweetheart is Cassie Ramone emerging as one of the most honest and vital songwriters of the underground.

Sweetheart, released on White and Ramone’s new CD-R Records, builds on Cassie Ramone’s legacy as a DIY pioneer. With Vivian Girls, Ramone and her bandmates forged a distinctive sound from 80s Punk, Shoegaze and 60s Girl Groups, delivering it with a dedication to world-building and Do It Yourself pragmatism. CD-Records and this first release are a continuation of Ramone’s mission to maintain creative and aesthetic control over her art, communicating directly and honestly. Sweetheart may also be the best record of her career.