The concept is one that has been done time and time again. Densely layered walls of sound, muffled and sometimes unintelligible vocals, and a big fuzzy barrage of bright, vibrant guitar noise. My Bloody Valentine came up with it, perfected it on the landmark "Loveless" album, and then put it to bed. Or so we thought, because lately, a growing number of bands are once again investigating the potential of the once maligned dream pop genre.

Charlene are in one way a fairly unambitious band in the way that they approach this album. The line between the melody and outright noise is blurred so much that you can't tell where one becomes the other, and the hazy, distorted guitar is laden with catchy pop hooks. But after a bit of listening, it becomes apparent that Charlene have made a couple of subtle differences to make themselves stand out, the noisy interruptions in the songs are both relaxingly natural, and eerily shadowy. Focused, direct, and strong, the music is nonetheless oblique, and it's often difficult to decipher just what is real, and what has been generated by computers, drum machines, and studio effects.

The album kicks off with Ripoff, which is built upon a steady guitar riff and dull, flat beats. It's not passive, nor is it stirring, but it manages to get the point across as well as being quite catchy. Some of the tracks, like Shot Down and Cathode feature touches of electronica which are restrained enough not to overpower the basic structure of their songs.

Despite the charm of a lot of these songs, Charlene fall down in a number of places. While they do have some interesting ideas, there are too many spots where they simply run out of ideas for a song, and launch into an instrumental jam. Unfortunately, these jams tend to be uninspiring or boring, dragging on for much too long. An example of this can be found in Stunner, which kicks off in great form with a simple, catchy xylophone line, but which goes on for about seven minutes too long. What could have been a great three-minute guitar pop song is dragged out to a seven-minute yawn fest featuring too much time where there is simply nothing happening, and some enormously self-indulgent lyrics (pro-tip: referencing Mazzy Star shouldn't translate to instant indie-cred).

The band does deserve credit for infusing traditional dream pop sounds with apprehension and musical pressure, but there are just too many places where they fail to reach their potential. The ideas are certainly there, and their debut isn't absolutely horrible, so hopefully on their next album, Charlene can refine their sound into something a bit more compelling.

The concept is one that has been done time and time again. Densely layered walls of sound, muffled and sometimes unintelligible vocals, and a big fuzzy barrage of bright, vibrant guitar noise. My Bloody Valentine came up with it, perfected it on the landmark "Loveless" album, and then put it to bed. Or so we thought, because lately, a growing number of bands are once again investigating the potential of the once maligned dream pop genre.

Charlene are in one way a fairly unambitious band in the way that they approach this album. The line between the melody and outright noise is blurred so much that you can't tell where one becomes the other, and the hazy, distorted guitar is laden with catchy pop hooks. But after a bit of listening, it becomes apparent that Charlene have made a couple of subtle differences to make themselves stand out, the noisy interruptions in the songs are both relaxingly natural, and eerily shadowy. Focused, direct, and strong, the music is nonetheless oblique, and it's often difficult to decipher just what is real, and what has been generated by computers, drum machines, and studio effects.

The album kicks off with Ripoff, which is built upon a steady guitar riff and dull, flat beats. It's not passive, nor is it stirring, but it manages to get the point across as well as being quite catchy. Some of the tracks, like Shot Down and Cathode feature touches of electronica which are restrained enough not to overpower the basic structure of their songs.

Despite the charm of a lot of these songs, Charlene fall down in a number of places. While they do have some interesting ideas, there are too many spots where they simply run out of ideas for a song, and launch into an instrumental jam. Unfortunately, these jams tend to be uninspiring or boring, dragging on for much too long. An example of this can be found in Stunner, which kicks off in great form with a simple, catchy xylophone line, but which goes on for about seven minutes too long. What could have been a great three-minute guitar pop song is dragged out to a seven-minute yawn fest featuring too much time where there is simply nothing happening, and some enormously self-indulgent lyrics (pro-tip: referencing Mazzy Star shouldn't translate to instant indie-cred).

The band does deserve credit for infusing traditional dream pop sounds with apprehension and musical pressure, but there are just too many places where they fail to reach their potential. The ideas are certainly there, and their debut isn't absolutely horrible, so hopefully on their next album, Charlene can refine their sound into something a bit more compelling.