Artist: Rogue Wave

Album: Nightingale Floors

Typically I like to write about familiar albums that have simmered in my brain for a while. Today, though, I want to share a recently released album (I almost missed its debut, but I’m happy I didn’t). My favorite band, Rogue Wave, released a new record called Nightingale Floors and as always, it grabbed me from the first note.

My initial love for Rogue Wave was an accident in every sense of the word. This is a band that, no matter how long it has been since my last listen, my love never fades.

I’d like to give you a little bit of my history with the band before launching into my review of Nightingale Floors, if I could. I was given a hand-me-down computer years ago (it was considered an old computer in 2005, if that’s any indication) with no internet or any means to discover new music. The computer’s former owner somehow missed a file hidden deep within it, in a file titled “ROGUE WAVE,” so I opened it up and the rest was history. My ears would never be the same. The album Out of the Shadow hit me in a way no other music had. I was destined to discover them!

Don’t get me wrong, I was as much of a music fanatic then as well, but this band… They were different.

So, needless to say, I have closely followed each of Rogue Wave’s albums since then: listening to each one with enamored fascination. I’m always nervous when a band I love releases a new album, for fear that the band may have changed for the worse or gotten stale. Not with this band.

Rogue Wave’s Nightingale Floors is absolute reassurance to me that a band can grow and strengthen, yet still maintain a sense of who they have always been. Too often, bands feel the need to evolve much too soon and it can be a death sentence. Rogue Wave has managed to evolve perfectly while still maintaining so much of the identity I fell in love with, and that is so important.

Now, about Nightingale Floors. When the album begins, you almost wonder how it can be Rogue Wave, but as soon as that thought is finished… BAM! There they are! They carry you through the album with grace and this amazingly huge sound. The lyrics are sad and abstract, but always with charm. You can hear the wounded beauty in each of the songs. I feel this album captivates the band’s maturation with life, its desires, and all its conflicts. Then, at the end of each song, you are left with this sense of absolution and mortal purity.

Nightingale Floors is the type of album I don’t want to reveal too much about because I want you to discover something in it for yourself: especially if you have never heard them before. If you have heard, then I hope that you share in the overwhelming fascination I still have every time I listen.

If any of this gave you inspiration and want some more stop on by their website and give them some love. With much love I give this album 10 out of 10! I don’t think I will ever be able to pinpoint why I can’t help but be hypnotized by these guys, but damn it, I love them. It’s beautiful poetry disguised as indie rock.

Don’t forget to come and see which band I will be nerding out about next week!