Being a casual blogger turned music journalist opens up a bevy of possibilities for anyone who approaches things the right way. In my experience, writing has given me the excuse and motivation to properly explore those bands on the fringe of my interest – I have heard or know enough about them to want to explore them more fully “someday,” but I never quite get there. That is, until I have the chance to write about them! Rogue Wave is one such band.
Rogue Wave for me has been that band that vaguely saunters somewhere in the same universe as Jack Johnson, albeit with some added muscle. In retrospect, I’m not sure where i got this idea (it was the aquatic name maybe? Waves…Jack Johnson is a surfer…right) but the deviation isn’t too unforgivable, at least judging from my listen of Nightingale Floors.
You can tell the album is going to be a therapeutic listen from the moment you hear the first few bars of the instrumental “No Magnatone.” Take notice – I said therapeutic, not always relaxing. Nightingale Floors is therapeutic in the same sort of way listening to a train roll by at night is. Its presence is comforting, when expected closely there’s a whole crapload of stuff making up that cacophony of noise. Except, in the case of Rogue Wave, the noise isn’t really noise – and that’s where this analogy falls flat. Case in point, “Figured it Out” is about the least cacophonous thing on the record – shoegaze-y vibes abound here, in noticeable contrast to the airy pair of the aforementioned intro track and “College.”
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rva3xDpoPuE&h=297&w=450]“Siren’s Song” is predictably alluring. The melody is catchy enough to reassure us that we are not, in fact, headed toward certain doom (see Greek mythology for further explanation – yes, I know another IATU took this route in a review, but I digress). The chorus is molded into a structure of slight suspense amidst the hooks. “The Closer I Get” is downright relaxing with its unchanging acoustic guitar plucking and background “hmmms.” It took me a while to get the play on words that “S(a)tan” might be – calling some person named Stan the name of the devil himself. It’s a eerie awakening that jolts us away from the previous track, though. “Used To It” continues the surreal-ness with an outright traverse into lands explored by Portugal. The Man. Psychedelia abounds here with the rhodes and crunchy guitars juxtaposing one another. Coming down from the high, Rogue Wave gets earthy with another straightforward acoustic-ish tune, titled “Without Pain.” This is even more bare bones than “The Closer I Get.” The record concludes with the simple “When Sunday Morning Comes” and the the seven-ish minute long opus that poses the same theme over and over, as if rephrasing a question to clarify a point anew multiple times.
Whew. Every song begged rightful attention yet I’m left feeling refreshed. Listen and perhaps you’ll feel the same.
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