How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
Rogue Wave
"Permalight"
2.5 Stars
After a three-year hiatus, Rogue Wave returns with a paradox. The band's new album, "Permalight," contains jarring switch-ups between acoustic and electronic instrumentation, as if they've spent three years not really knowing where to go. But the break, sparked by the tragic death of former bassist Evan Farrell, does prove that even adversity can breed West Coast sun-tinged pop albums.
Some of the album's better tracks, such as "Stars and Stripes" and "Good Morning," enter a realm of electro pop beats and drum machine advents previously foreign to the Rogue Wave camp. Still, whether you call it maturation or deem it risky, the album remains true, at least, to the group's gorgeously simple melodies.
"Don't go / Don't go / Don't go without me," Zach Rogue sings in the chorus of "Fear Itself." The harmony is painfully sweet, and just subtle enough to welcome their new bassist Patrick Abernethy, whose strings thump in constant reassurance.
It is nearly impossible for Rogue Wave to avoid references to the bright and despondent pop of the Shins, which is unfortunately illuminated in the record's final track, "All that Remains." A clever, short and completely acoustic song, it's hampered by predictable lines such as, "Now we're born again / And all that remains is all that reminds us of the sound you've always known." This shift in sound exhibits a loss of identity, as the band fluctuates between softer tracks and wallowing, overproduced synthesizers.
The album title, "Permalight," is far from fitting. With the band's drastic transitions and overtly brooding attempts at electro popularity, it's going to be anything but a permanent fixture.
