There's a certain charm that comes with stripping music down to its simplest form, but pulling it off can be difficult. For many bands, their music is their cover — something to hide mediocre lyrics and vocals behind. But if you take away that cover, the general consensus is that you better be an amazing songwriter. MTV executives take note: This is why something like Korn Unplugged simply doesn't work.

On the album Reflector, Washington, D.C.-based Antelope surely subscribes to that motto of "less is better," but the band finds itself awkwardly shifting between what works and what doesn't. Recorded and mixed by Ian MacKaye, the album resembles MacKaye's current project, The Evens, in many ways. It's punk minus the fist-pumping bravado. Power chords have been replaced by repetitive strings of notes, and the drums shuffle through each song.

On some songs, it works wonderfully — like the catchy opening track "Reflector" and the raw "Dead Eye." But the constant regurgitation of melody and lyrics sometimes ruins potentially great songs ("Wandering Ghost") or turns one-minute songs like "Collective Dream" into half thoughts. The band — consisting of Mike Andre on bass, drums and vocals; Bee Elvy on bass, drums and vocals; and Justin Moyer on guitar and vocals — openly admits to frequent use of "the melody vs. repetition equation," so it's useless to call them out on it. Plus, if you're an Ian MacKaye fan, you're likely to ignore all of this and buy the album, anyway.

Antelope's Reflector is being released by Dischord Records on March 26.