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Rogue Wave
Permalight
By Chris Drabick
With Rogue Wave pared down to a just the duo of Zach Rogue (neé Schwartz) and drummer Pat Spurgeon, you might expect a more stripped-down affair. Not exactly. Continuing along the more ambitious trajectory of 2008’s Asleep At Heaven’s Gate, the duo’s Permalight barely sounds like the Rogue Wave that fans of their Sub Pop records would expect. With both Schwartz and Spurgeon having undergone medical trauma over the last couple of years (Spurgeon’s search for a kidney donor was the subject of Jim Granato’s documentary D Tour), the duo regards Permalight as a rebirth.
That’s plain throughout the record, which has an ’80s-inflected BIG drum sound. There is also a pronounced new wave feel to “Good Morning,” a track which lays bare Schwartz’ stated intention to make this a dance record. Permalight also lacks the folk-pop influence that made the earlier Rogue Wave records winners, substituting blustery arrangements on the annoying “Stars and Stripes” and the stiff title track. Occasionally, Schwartz’ engaging melodic sense wins out over the hoo-hah. That’s the case with the fine “Sleepwalker” (which, not coincidentally, is the song here that sounds the most like it could’ve made one of the Sub Pop records). But mostly what we’ve got is style over substance, with Schwartz and Spurgeon covering these emperor’s new clothes in an unsatisfactory new wave cloak. Permalight burns out before it even gets started.
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