CD Review

With the onslaught of bands jumping on the OC bandwagon, it’s easy to lose the diamonds in the rough. Rogue Wave could have easily slipped into the current with the release of their second album. Their first landed in them in the same sentence as The Shins and Elliot Smith. Now they return with an exclamation point that begins to put them in a class by themselves. Descended like Vultures is not only beautiful, but heavy and textured pop that crawls under your skin with emotive lingering.

“Bird on a Wire” and “10:1” layer sounds in a kind of whimsy – strings, keyboards, guitars, bells – is that an xylophone? What could have just been a whole lot of noise, turns into a solid environment of music. Listening to the album in full is like walking through a movie of sound. Songs like the beautifully gentle “California” or “Are You on My side” add an innocent vulnerability which continues to drive the story. Rogue Wave’s dexterity at moving in and out of sounds (from country to indie) and their substantive lyrics (“love comes like a Kennedy curse/the victim role was well rehearsed”) are indications that they are indeed moving into a swell of their own.

For more info see: roguewavemusic.com

E.C. Thomas is an independent filmmaker, photographer and writer in Boston: dragonflyROAR.com