Cherry Bomb throws a champagne-soaked Y2K party on “Digital Girl”

Photo credit: Matty Vogel

Cherry Bomb, the Los Angeles-based solo project of MisterWives’ Mandy Lee throws a Y2K party with a confessional, pop-drenched tune “Digital Girl” via AWAL. Underneath the pulsing beat and crisp vocals, Lee earnestly chronicles the pains of keeping up with an increasingly automated, algorithmic world as an artist.

With a reference to Madonna’s “Material Girl,” made for 2026 on the bubbling Y2K earworm, the track details the real struggles of being both a musician and a person today. Speaking on the contrived displays of perfection on social media and pressures of constant self-promotion, Lee explains, “‘Digital Girl’ asks how far are you willing to go for your dreams and at what cost? In this Information Age where the pressures of perfection and an unsustainable quantity over quality are constantly burning out not just artists but everyone who is plugged in, it’s impossible to not romanticize unplugging entirely.”

Torn between keeping up and giving up on the broken system, but ultimately choosing to chase her passion and find love within, Lee continues, “Remembering a time when you could tour without social media to adapting to social media now becoming an algorithmic gatekeeper for musicians while the charts are riddled with AI-generated songs leaves you at a crossroads of having to partake in the systems you hate for the sake of what you love.”