Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Edward Rogers, TV Generation, 2017

Album Review

By Henry Lipput

To paraphrase Pete Townsend, Edward Rogers is talking about his generation.

On TV Generation, his seventh solo album, Rogers is talking about both his generation and the musical generation that came a little before his (and mine) that's losing so many of its guiding lights.

The influence of two of Rogers' heroes, David Bowie and The Kinks, are evident throughout the new album.

First Bowie. The English-born Rogers (he moved to the United States with his family when he was 12) has a distinctive Bowie sound to his voice and you can really hear it on the two songs, "20th Century Heroes" and, especially, "No Words."

On the heartbreaking "No Words," he channels Bowie as he relates his reaction to news of his idol's passing. The song began as a poem written on the day of Bowie's death and has been given a terrific, sympathetic arrangement by Jane Scrantoni. In the song, Rogers sings about grieving "of a lad who went insane," "one of the original London boys," and someone "who gave us songs of outer space."

It's no surprise that Rogers has listened to a lot of music by The Kinks, too. He's got a Ray Davies lyrical sensibility and his musical vocabulary spans the group's output (it's also not surprising that earlier this year he opened for Dave Davies at Manhattan's City Winery). The title track, "TV Generation," is very much a callback to The Kinks' arena-rock albums of the 80s like Give The People What They Want and State Of Confusion. Without mentioning celebrity names, Rogers' song "20th Century Heroes" is a tale of recent rock deaths that could be his version of "Celluloid Heroes." (He even references "A Day In The Life" in the line "I saw the news, another died today.") And "The Player" has a very "Sunny Afternoon" feel to it (or perhaps even "Did Ya," The Kinks' 1991 single that was about the passing of Swinging London and used bits of that earlier song).

Other album standouts include the jangly gem "Gossips Truth and Lies," and "Wounded Conversation" is an acoustic beauty about a difficult time in a relationship: "A wounded conversation is easier said than done / 'cause in the end you have to hurt / the only one." "Sturdy Man's Shout" is a Rolling Stones-like bluesy rocker that could have come from their prime late-60s period.

"On This Wednesday In June" juxtaposes a lyrical acoustic melody with the story of a young man "who has hatred in his heart and wants the world to fall apart." With the refrain "Love is stronger than hate," the song, based on the events of June 17, 2015 (which Rogers characterizes as an "ordinary" Wednesday before the violence occurred), tries to make sense (if such a thing is possible) of the tragic shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC.

TV Generation is out now on Zip Records.

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