EDWARD ROGERS
Sparkle Lane
Edward Rogers finds inspiration in the quaint melodies and elaborate arrangements first conjured up by acts like the Kinks, the Hollies and the Zombies as they were crafting their seminal ’60s sounds. As an English expatriate, Edwards comes by that heritage naturally. His earlier work with the folk-rock quartet Green Rooftops and his chamber pop duo, Bedsit Poets, offered the initial evidence, and his two previous solo albums reaffirmed that jangly pop and British rock are embedded in his musical DNA. The impeccably crafted Sparkle Lane ranks as his best effort yet, a record that sits nicely alongside the Kinks’ Village Green Preservation Society and the Zombies’ Odessey and Oracle as precisely tuned art-rock at its finest. With a support crew consisting of members of Cracker, the Psychedelic Furs, the Kennedys and the Silos, Rogers retells the bittersweet story of his relocation from London to New York, replete with memories of an idyllic childhood (“Symbols ’n Mascots,” “Passing the Sunshine,” “Sparkle Lane”) and his nagging sense of displacement after leaving it behind (“Boys in Grey,” “Land of the Free”). There’s an unapologetic sense of nostalgia, only compounded by the ’60s-style strings, sitars, cellos, harpsichords, synths, Moogs and Mellotrons. Sparkle Lane truly shines.
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