Hilang Child :: "Gold Isle" and "Green Arrow"

The most delicate pop in the world emerges from the mind and hands of Ed Riman, the architect of Hilang Child. Giving nods to Bon Iver, early Rogue Wave, and Fleet Foxes, Hilang Child builds a Jenga tower of silky vocals and seemingly distant instruments, all so precariously placed and tenuously settled that it seems the whole thing could collapse in a moment. But it holds together with a specific and gentle gravity, the glittering flourishes of "Gold Isle," a worldly pop song equal to anything in the Justin Vernon universe. Amid all the fragility lies a central firmness, a timelessness even, and just because everything feels like it might break doesn't mean it's broken.

Rogue Wave :: "College"

Zach Rogue's most recent release as Rogue Wave was the troubled and bombastic long player, Permalight. Without enumerating the album's many failures, auto-tune was featured prominently, and Rogue, allegedly penned most of the album in the throws of multiple slipped disks in his back. As is so frequently the narrative with mid-career bands, by the time of Permalight, Rogue had drifted awfully far from the college radio fare that made him so intensely likeable at the early 2000s. "College", the first single from coming LP Nightingale Floors, returns Rogue Wave to the more propulsive designs of his early work. Relying here on a clattering piano riff and fuzzy guitars, "College" has one of those hooks that calls for instant replay. The long outtro, the long sense of a come down after the frenetic high points of, as Rogue describes it, a confusing and long form adolescence.

Rogue Wave :: "Good Morning"

Last we left Zach Rogue of Rogue Wave, he was in a Zune commercial talking about global warming in the lyrics of "Lake Michigan." I immediately put it on a mixtape and sent it to someone in Montana. Since then, the Zune has completely failed, the Copenhagen summit was a sort-of-failure, and I've sent six or seven more mixtapes to various zip codes around the continental United States.

Of course, Zach Rogue isn't standing still and he won't be a part of three maybe-blighted narratives (see above). The opening moments of "Good Morning" showcase packaged drums and a shabby guitar riff before exploding into something more bombastic. This isn't the least bit organic. By the time Rogue is charging into the chorus, the guitars are buzzing and his vocal is (oh my God, really?) auto-tuned. And yet, the lite power-pop tones are the same charming melodies that showed up on Rogue's first two records. "Good Morning" is a grower, repeating the mantra, "the future, the future," through the bridge. I suspect Zach Rogue would rather take us somewhere vaguely uncomfortable and new than fail in his place.

Listen :: Rogue Wave - "Good Morning"