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CHARLIE MARS
(V2)
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Twenty-nine-year-old Charlie Mars finds a balance between accessible and anthemic, catchy and cathartic on this, his homonymous major-label debut. Weaned on the songcraft of Achtung Baby–era U2, Mars applies Bono’s breathy delivery to his own natural Southern-fried twang as he pleads "Oh baby, baby, baby/This is your song" on "Simple Things," one of the disc’s sweetest standouts. The plucky ballad "How Could You" explores the awkwardness of a once intimate relationship on the rocks: "How could you do this to me/You know how to touch me." Mars is at his best when his lyrics provide true-to-life snapshots of the ups and downs of romance, from tear-stained remorse to sensual yearning. What limits this album is his narrow view of the world: pictured wandering through a stand of trees on the CD cover, he croons and croons and croons about loving and learning, leaving and yearning, until his hopeless romanticism becomes just a tad tiresome.
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