Charlie Mars – Self-Titled

Youve got to ride on/Let the people say what they want, Charlie Mars sings on Gather The Horses, the opening track on his self-titled major-label debut. Over nearly a decades time and through three independent releases, Mars has taken his own advice, persevering through poor sales and personal travails. But to what end? Truth be told, the people didnt say much about him one way or another.

That could change with this album, on which the Arkansas-born, Mississippi-reared Mars surrounds himself with surging soundscapes and lush string arrangements that make him a good fit for V2, whose roster already includes Coldplay and Elbow. With a down-home yet sonorous voice that occasionally slips into falsetto, Mars sometimes sounds like a southern-fried Bono.

The albums dozen cuts deal with a vague sense of desperation and dissatisfaction that Mars either cant or wont identify. I want to cry but I aint got the guts, he sings on Simple Things. He suffers from a restless desire to escape his surroundings indeed, his own identity on songs such as White Out, When The Sun Goes Down and Silver Buttons. When things do go right as on Bay Springs Road, when a friend forgives an old transgression and tells him, There aint another crazy mother I could love like you Mars sense of relief is palpable.