Keeping Up Appearances

On Keeping Up Appearances, the icy smoothness that pervaded the Charade's 2006 release, A Real Life Drama, has been roughed up at the edges. They sound less delicate, a bit shamblier, a bit heavier — and the reason for this can be chalked up to the fact that Magnus Karlsson is on lead vocals on most of the tracks. Some things haven't changed; for one thing, the Charade are still writing pop songs that hark back to the '60s — especially on the Simon & Garfunkel-esque "Ballad of the Uneasy Rider (I'm a Loaded Gun)" and on "The Perfect Shade of Grey," which knots itself into brassy, bouncy, New Seekers-esque shapes. But the fact remains that they just sound different here, and sometimes it just sounds kind of awkward, especially on "I Used to Live in the '80s," which plods along at a forgettable clip. Stumbles aside, this new approach does yield some good moments, especially on "The World Is Going Under" and "What's a Normal Person?" — these songs might be a bit janglier than the Charade's previous fare, but they're just as whisper-light, whimsical, and spun-sugary as any of their best work. (They also happen to be tracks that feature Ingela Mattson on lead vocals.) Keeping Up Appearances doesn't ever quite hit a frosty, pitch-perfect pop note the way the Charade did on their second album ("Sunny Winter Afternoon" is a tough track to beat); that said, this album offers enough pop sweetness to make it stand up pretty well next to the Charade's other two albums.