Charise Sowells is your throwback to a time when you weren’t even alive. In fact, no one was. She belongs on a film reel. She introduces the process of becoming obsolescent, and the cover art of her album, “Obsolescent Adolescence,” does much justice to that. It’s a bygone aesthetic, and I am here for it. Her music might make you do double takes and squint your eyes, trying to figure out the image she is creating with the sounds she is making.
“Obsolescent Adolescence” is a soulful album blended in a hypnotic concoction of folk, rock, electronica, and world music with a whole range of traditional and electronic instrumentals going behind Charise’s breathy high voice. Charise’s also got guitar, synth, beats, and ukelele going on under her wings. The singer is apparently also the writer, composer, and producer behind the whole album. Midnite Tiger handled the beats, bass, synth, keys, guitar, and all the drumming alongside her. Then we have Evan Malouf on bass and guitar too.
Amongst the 12 tracks of “Obsolescent Adolescence,” we start with the unpredictable sound of “Morning Breath” and head into shades of white with Charise’s translucent head voice in “Heartbreak Town.” From the whites, we fade into the sultry knowing-better omniscience of “Bedroom Eyes.”
What I like about the album is how Charise can show us different aspects of one persona with the absolute laid-back and devil-may-care attitude in songs like “Bedroom Eyes” and “Pura Vida,” then switching to a subtle angel in songs like “Magical Month” and “Better Day.”
There are many more shades of the monochrome of “Obsolescent Adolescence” in the other tracks. You have to really listen to it to capture its enigma. It was released freshly this April 27th. Check it out now.
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Photo Credit: Verna Starling, Charise Sowells, Lou Roole
Review By: Naomi Joan