I came to Audrye Sessions self-titled debut without knowing anything at all about them, and somehow, on the basis of their name and the album cover, I think I subconsciously assumed they were a folk band. Instead, what they really are is an arena-sized pop rock band, a fairly familiar mosaic of acoustic and electric guitars, big choruses and often, equally big gestures. And it's all very likeable, so far as that goes. The choruses in particular can be very impressively lush and sweeping, especially on the opening two tracks, "Turn Me Off" and "Perfect, Sometimes." The trouble is that when the big gestures and sentiments come to the fore, they sometimes weigh the songs down. Making those kind of thematic moves demands a certain panache of an artist - if you don't quite have it, as in Audrye Sessions' case, you can come off sounding a little too close to cheesy soppiness than the sincere earnestness and warmth that you're probably aiming for. Ryan Karazija's vocals may be somewhat off-putting for some, stagey and almost-overwrought as they are. Some will lap up his range, though, and there's nothing to be complained about when it comes to the band's instrumentation. Whether they're rocking out, as during the conclusion of "The Paper Face" (with its curious chorus of "so 'fess up, 'fess up") or being more introspective and melancholic, everything sounds in place. This is an extremely solid but not especially ambitious or original record - there are a few minor deviations from the formula though, like the expansive multi-paced closer "Dust and Bones" and the lyrically interesting "Where You'll Find Me" which posits quite a utopian vision of the world at times. The weaker songs, like "Relentless", which falls into the sappy trap "it seems relentless, but I can be relentless too", do upset the album's flow and throw a few uneasy lyrics into the mix, but they don't significantly damage the solid groundwork the band have put down here. Leaning quite heavily on a few genuinely impressive songs, Audrye Sessions have proven themselves to be a competent, capable but unspectacular band. Where they go from here will be the real test. 65%Audrye Sessions on MySpace