Charolotte's Shadow- Love and Hate, No Tears

Currently based in Madrid, but formerly residing in both Ireland and Germany, Charlotte's Shadow sports atmospheric synth-laden retro goth rock and new wave tendencies on Love and Hate, No Tears. Sometimes fronted by male lead and founder J. Catala, at others fronted by the sultry, semi-spoken delivery of female vocalist Charlotte Keoghan, the band rip through 45 minutes of lo-fi, moody, bass-driven, synth-accented rock. Granted, the album is a wee bit under-produced and sloppy, but it's fairly strong compositionally and certainly has a fair amount of heart.

From the guitar solo-laden, moody opener "Love and Hate" to the slightly Cure-ish synth melodies of "Movin' Apart" to the denser synth dirge "See You Falling", the material here recalls the flare and atmosphere of the mid-late 80s goth scene. Catala's guttural, emotive, sometimes layered whines and bellows sometimes recall Rozz Williams, while Keoghan's processed spoken style is quite comparable to the work of later Mephisto Walz vocalist Christiana. Other standouts include the great up-tempo bass-driven rocker "I'm Not Afraid", the spectacular synth-heavy goth rock of "No Tears", and the interesting moody club number "Alone". Cure fans should also note that the disc ends with a hidden rendition of "Boys Don't Cry", a fairly good arrangement that, unfortunately, suffers from a bit of sloppiness and a vocal delivery that really doesn't work.

Fairly solid and stylistically consistent, Charlotte's Shadow's Love and Hate, No Tears is a nice throwback to the heyday of new wave-infused moody goth rock. Again, the album is a little rough around the edges production/performance-wise for those that take note of such things, but the band's fairly strong retro atmospheric goth rock blend is certainly endearing and, hopefully, foreshadows bigger things to come.