Charlee Remitz drops new CD

It isn’t difficult to admire the effort and talent required for this album. Charlee Remitz’s Sophmore release bubbles over with a thousand and one ideas, surprising instrumental voices, and daring fusions of form. More impressively, she carries much of it off with chest-thumping confidence common to veteran performers. It’s a strongly produced work as well that places Remitz at the forefront without ever demoting the backing music to mere vehicles for her singing. However, repeated listens leaves her open to the observation that, perhaps, there are too many ideas for this eight-track album to bear. Like a first time novelist, Remitz seems unduly eager to pack an entire lifetime of experiences into her debut and approaches it seemingly hell-bent on proving her talents. 

Tracks like “King’s Cup”, “Juicebox Season”, “Stucco Houses”, and the Caribbean flavored finale “Routines” compromise half the album and play like her attempts to enter the mainstream pop world on her terms. Listeners will be able, if they wish, to cherry pick a range of influences in these songs, but Remitz rises above mere imitation thanks to her distinctive phrasing and the character of her lyrical content. The first song and album opener “King’s Cup” is, arguably, the album’s safest fare, but it is perhaps the album’s most focused effort and bears the hallmarks of a strong pop single. The remaining songs fuse trance pop and other “club” genres with such confidence that it’s easy to forget this is just her second release. Remitz sounds like she’s been doing this for a long time.

The other half of the album couldn’t be more different. Remitz clearly feels quite an affinity for rap music and songs like “Cake Eater”, “BMW”, and “Bitches and Ladders” are unapologetically adult romps bringing hip-hop’s energy and aggression together with more traditional pop structures heard in the lighter songs. It’s a combustible mix. Some might find it a little gratuitous, but none will say that Remitz isn’t surprisingly convincing in the role. The album’s second track, “Fillin’ In For a Goddess”, is probably the album’s finest song. Remitz sings with considerable conviction and the slowly evolving tempo gathers intensity at crucial points, particularly the chorus. The addition of guitar, a seldom heard instrument on Bright White Trims, gives the track an added melodic layer. 

Some might find Remitz a little too eager to shock her audiences, but as mentioned in the introduction, the strongest criticism you can level at Bright White Trims is it takes on too much for its own good. Listeners thankfully hear reflections of this phenomenon in the album’s musical energy and her vocals, but the dizzying creative designed to impress us all sometimes seems restless and overexerted. There’s no question, however, that this is a fine follow-up statement, if not among the finest from this genre in 2015, and positions Remitz ideally for the future.

URL: http://charleeremitz.com/ 

SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/charlee-remitz

8 out of 10 stars.