The second release from this Dutch outfit is just as chewy and tasty as the first. Four songs that utilize the catchiest bits of 90s alternapoprock, shrink-wrapped for our pleasure.

Charmless i Next Level EP (TCBMYL)

Alex Pasveer's songs don't stint on the hooks, but his lyrics are much more involved and sophisticated than the usual mainstream stuff. What's most interesting to me is that so much effort is being put into making rock music.

Despite embracing a sound that is dismissed as passe (and past, period), Charmless i has created four more songs that rocket joy to the ears. Just as Duran Duran brought a damaged humanity to synth pop (and then promptly lost it by the time they did the theme to that James Bond movie), Charmless i has managed to create something new out of something faceless.

One more EP, and then all the songs will be bound up in an LP. You could wait for that, but why? The good times have already arrived.

Jon Worley