Rogue Wave returns with its sophomore release Descended Like Vultures, true to the form of their original LP Out of the Shadow – however, this is not to infer redundancy.
Zach Rogue (vocals/guitar/kingpin) and friend/producer Bill Racine recorded the entire debut during a sabbatical Rogue took in New York City. Rogue wrote and played every bit of the album. He then returned to San Francisco and soon began assembling a band to tour extensively in support of the release. Eventually, with very few changes in personnel, the entire band went into the studio to record Descended…
The most notable consistency between the two releases, unsurprisingly, is the vocal style of Rogue himself. For a quaint-sounding indie rock crooner, he has a powerful sense of rhythm and an uncanny knack for making words sound silky, yet doesn’t quibble when they are intended to come across as knives. In a close second is Rogue’s uncanny sense of the hook. Both albums are so similarly infectious, we can only assume he was there to advise on much of the writing, regardless of who was responsible for each aspect.
Rogue himself describes Descended as a departure, saying that it picks up where Out of the Shadow left off. This may be true, and it is certainly laudable that the band has expanded as largely in musical intrigue as it has in number of members. But the greatest accomplishment is certainly the consistency and viability that Rogue has sustained on this second record – a feat difficult for any band, but especially for one that didn’t exist before facing the challenge of its second LP.
