Rogers, Anthony: One Day

Having alt-rocked in the nineties with The Now, Ten Below and Skatley Crue, Anthony Rogers moved away from live performance. A solo 1994 debut, Identification, heralded a change of tack, before, well, not much really. It would be two full decades before Wrong landed in 2014 and now the ‘Appalachian psychedelic home spun music artist’ returns with his third individual take on the world, One Day.

Primarily a vinyl release, this latest outing is split into two records, the first a 7 inch single (that plays at 33rpm) and the second a 12 inch platter, and as such is separated into ‘phases’. With the press release suggesting that Rogers is following in the footsteps of Brian Wilson, Todd Rundgren and Frank Zappa, what immediately strikes as “Mash� unravels the album into disparate threads is the intentionally lo-fi nature of what is being created. Piano percusses things into place, a ramshackle beat drunkenly following it down the alley before whined vocals adds another layer that doesn’t seem that worried about what else is going on. Mainly commenting on life, but in a variety of guises, the lyrics are disaffected and challenging; politically inclined but not out and out preach.

At times when you traverse “I’ll Take The Blame� or “Roman Candle� things feel close to falling apart, but that they never do is strongly to Rogers’ credit, the psych-indie retro rock difficult to pin down and, for me, even more elusive to engage. In truth by the time we’ve dipped a toe in the haze of “In The Water� and traversed the landscape of “Land Rover� my attention has wandered far off into the ether and pretty much forgotten what’s going on. And when the reprise of “Mash/Cocks In The Field� causes me to recall the album’s opening, my overriding thought is, ‘is this still going’?

Anthony Rogers is talented, he’s a lone soul and the furrow he ploughs isn’t being sown with a seed that’s there to please anyone other than himself. If it’s a journey you can jump on board with, I’ve no doubt the depth of reward may well be incredible. I, however, couldn’t be less engaged, or less excited by what seems to these uneducated ears to be repetitive ramblings that lack for direction or meaning.

Track Listing
7″ 1
Mash
I’ll Take The Blame

7″ 2
Half The Picture
Big House On The Hill

12″ 1
Into The See
Roman Candle
Fly Away
In The Water

12″ 2
Ploom Mfs
Range Rover
And When They Ask You
Mash (Reprise) / Cocks In The Field

Added: April 12th 2019
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Anthony Rogers @ CD Baby
Hits: 935
Language: english

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