Charm - Stained Glass Garden (2023) Hi-Res

“In 1984, Greensboro, North Carolina found its defunct Revolution Cotton Mills added to the National Register of Historic Places. That year also found Duran Duran and the soon-to-be Cocteau Twins at the same party in Europe. The party is what some consider to be the reason shoegaze was invented, while its American counterpart spelled the end of this “slow burning construction,” a fireproof industrial complex. Decades later in the same town, Charm began threading together its own brand of shoegaze. Two EPs laid the foundation for the quartet’s core sound: a cocktail of surf-rock bliss rimmed by feedback and grit. Super Style—their first release for hometown heroes Acrobat Unstable—tightens the formula to yield something brighter and more layered than before. It’s hard to consider this run of the mill or anything less than fiery. The band’s core (Brody Rogers, Bailey Alley, Caleb Buehner, Ethan Justice) is multi-instrumental by nature, leading to a more collaborative and sporadic writing process. This comes through best on the climbing wall of sound built on “Slow Blink Feeling” or the interlocking guitar soloing woven through “808s and Headaches.” No one voice monopolizes the experience, even when the band’s calling out to Bella on opener “Cherry” or Charleston, SC on “2 4 3.” It’s a brisk, robust collection built for the autumn months—and it might just burn your whole season down if you let it.”