Together for Music

Charles and Otis are a duo that craft lush-yet-uninteresting keyboard music that wouldn't sound out of place in a dentist's office waiting room. On Together for Music, they craft 20 songs that are equal parts well-played and boring. This is about as generic as modern instrumental compositions can get, and the occasional use of vocals and sound effects only point out the album's weaknesses. There is no solid structure to keep the listener interested in the music, just drum machines and chords and noodling with no direction. To their credit, they can obviously play their instruments (although the out-of-tune piano on "Peace" might convince listeners otherwise), they just aren't doing anything with them. Maybe as incidental background music this would be acceptable, but it is hard to imagine anyone purposefully listening to Charles and Otis.