ROGUE WAVE - Descended Like Vultures Review

The temptation is to start name-dropping. We could start talking about how Zach Rogue's vocals split the difference between Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Mangum and the Shins' James Mercer, how the guitars twinkle and spark like Radiohead's glory days, how Rogue's tunes have the plasticine sheen of Death Cab for Cutie and the same weepy sincerity, and how naming your band after your last name is kinda lame. But I've heard that would be lazy journalism - and, whatever, these guys deserve a bit more from us anyway...full text I have a fascination with sad music. Most of my all-time favorite albums have a sense of grief hidden between tracks; not emo and all its (mostly) petty theatrics, but the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band sense of grief. The kind of emotions that throb inside a person and shape them, but rarely truly get out. For me, albums such as those are equivalent to a friend you can trust above all others....full text Rogue Wave's debut album Out of the Shadow was full of memorable songs, all of which you immediately forget. It remains the type of album that you say you love but forget to listen to until someone, probably a guy like Zach Braff, mentions that he likes it, and then you play it and enjoy it for a few days and put it on the shelf and forget about it, unless another someone asks you if you're a fan of Rogue Wave and then you say you are....full text