After 2008's excellent sophomore immersion in power pop, Merseybeat,
Revolver Beatles,
Byrds, and baroque, the got-better-every-time-it-was-played
You Haven't Been Where I've Been, New York's purveyor of '60s-spangled serenity turns his attention strictly to the baroque -- in a foppish 1967 London vein. Between evoking
Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist's Artful Dodger or Blighty's annual Guy Fawkes Night,
Rogers betrays a dancehall
Kinks,
Turtles, and later
Monkees predilection. (Well, after the opening "Symbols 'n Mascots" feints at new wave.) The strings-and-vocal bits are like
the Hollies'
Butterfly after hearing "Eleanor Rigby"; i.e., a light touch in an array of crafted styles. And
Rogers still writes effortless melodies like
the Left Banke and
Nick Lowe, sung in a vague Brit accent like
Hugh Cornwell. If not as gripping as
You Haven't,
Sparkle is more tasty candy. ~ Jack Rabid, The Big Takeover