While the past few years in the music scene have been devoted to guys wearing black eye-liner, 2006 is shaping up to be the year of the lady rocker. Cat Power and Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins started the year off with solid albums and The Rogers Sisters look to be the next link the chain. Will they tow the line or break the chain? Hell, they won’t even let the links touch the ground!! Band members/sisters, Jennifer Rogers (vocals/guitar) and Laura Rogers (drums/backing vocals) along with Miyuki Furtado (vocals/bass), who is not a girl, but a hard-rocking guy, have managed to created the masterpiece that everyone was waiting for.
They may have been Brooklyn’s best-kept secret for awhile, but sorry Williamsburg! These cats are way out of the bag now and the rest of the world is going to want a piece of them. Their full-length debut Purely Evil (2003) got some attention, but The Invisible Deck is the sort of album that should put them over the top. The Rogers Sisters have always been solid rockers with explosive personalities that were guaranteed to get a party started in a matter of seconds, but what makes this album really special is that their songwriting skills are now on par with playing.
Take for instance, “The Light” with its Talking Heads sound and idiosyncratic manner. It finds the band inhabiting a space slightly left of center – a place where they are right at home. “Money Matters” finds the band examining the dangers of excess. But do they preach about it in a droning way? Nah!! Instead, they tell it from a running rampant point-of-view - “It’s hard to tell the parents apart from the children/Cash, credit, debit or Texas Hold ‘Em/This time who’s the victim?/ I don’t care/It’s not enough/I want more!”
While the band never departs from ferocious driving rock and roll for too long, they do take a few left turns here and there. “Your Littlest World” plays like a slow burning summer night. It’s also a great vehicle for Jennifer Rogers’ angelic vocals. She sounds exactly like you’d think the girl next store type would if she were to break into song. Wisely though, the band uses her sweetness to lure their listeners down paths that can be surprisingly dark at times.
The Rogers Sisters have not only escaped any kind of sophomore slump with The Invisible Deck, they’ve leap frogged right over it. |