Remember in the ’90s when guitar rock was somehow tragic, sometimes to the point of overdose, when the reason for an album seemed primarily to be the exorcism of one’s personal demons, music be damned?

Schel Reaux is much along the same vein. This is straightforward coffeehouse folk with no gimmicks. The album reminds me of all the pleasures and pains I felt in high school—and whether this is good or bad is open to interpretation.

Schel Reaux’s got a beautiful voice, simple but melodic guitar and piano arrangements and lots of lyrics. Don’t look for heavy beats here: this album is a slow dirge, a melancholic invocation to premature sleep.

Schel’s best tracks are “Eye to Eye,” a defiant reminder to a lover who toys with reciprocation, “I know you feel it too,” Schel asserts. And on “Beautiful,” we’re treated to a solo piano piece with classical overtones, bringing to mind early Billy Joel and Cold Spring Harbor in particular.

Schel Reaux is a first album which sounds unsurprisingly like a first album. It’s got passion and it’s got feeling. But it’s hard not to wish that Schel would pick up the beat or throw in a different time signature at least once in a while.