The Critical Asshole: Listening to...

Generic Indie-Pop for Generic Indie-Pop Fans

Rebounding off his freshman “where the hell did this guy come from” success, Zach Rogue and friend(s) deliver up a spinning platter of unoffensive indie-pop non-classics. Nothing here seems to be groundbreaking, but alas, breaking ground does not necessarily make for good listening (another argument for another time). All the great elements of a hipster-indie album are here: Grandiose production (as opposed to “Out of the Shadow” which was delightfully sparse in instrumentation ), perfectly crafted, nonsensical lyrics, and adequate to decent sense of pace and change to the album to keep it from entirely putting the listener to sleep.

At best “Descended Like Vultures” is mood music, at worst it’s background schlock for your local Starbucks. Traditionally, second releases are a bit weak, but they usually set a great springboard for the third album.

“Bird On A Wire” - morbid circus themed song makes for great opening track.
“Publish My Love” - Sounds like the “big track of the album” if only there was some sort of coherent theme between the verse and the chorus: “You could never publish my love.”
“California” - Any song that starts with “Screw California…” is a winner in my book.
“You” - Epic, lilting tune. Wonderfully vague and romantic “One day I found you.” Sections of the tune effortlessly flow into one another.