There was a time when a whole slew of albums would regularly come out with a jangling, feel-good positivism that would make you tap your toes and provide an enjoyable listen as you were getting from Point A to Point B. More often than not, these albums didn’t have anything important to say; their only reason for existence was to provide an airy diversion from your daily travails.
And because Rogue Wave forges the same kind of innocent sound that Paul McCartney, Todd Rundgren and Brian Wilson used to craft, you can consider Out Of The Shadows as a light hit of Chai tea, rather than a heavily caffeinated cuppa joe.
Of course, songwriter Zach Rogue may eschew the featherweight tag and argue that his lyrics are a distinct literary cut above the rest. (Which they may be, although it’s kinda hard to tell without a lyric sheet because sometimes his words get garbled.) But with such pleasant music backing him, I sincerely doubt that on tracks like “Postage Stamp World” he’s singing about shotgunning his dad’s red-haired girlfriend and then dumping her buckshot-riddled body in the ocean.
The deuce, you say.
Rogue Wave performs Saturday, Aug. 7, at Small’s (10339 Conant, Hamtramck, 313-873-1117) with AC Newman.
E-mail Jeffrey Morgan at [email protected].
