The Rogers Sisters @ ULU

I’m glad I left it a while to write about the Rogers Sisters. I’ve had their new album, The Invisible Deck, for a while now, but have never got round to doing a review. But I’m glad, because my opinion has gradually changed over the past couple of weeks. After a cursory listen or two, I’d have said “Yeah, it’s OK”. Even as recently as just after their support slot for Be Your Own Pet at ULU on Friday, I was telling someone that the album “tails off at the end”. The hell it does. It’s all good!

It’s odd that an album which is essentially full of short, fuzzy punky songs with guy/girl vocals should take a while to grow. That kinda thing is usually pretty instant, innit? Well, maybe, but somehow this one crept up on me unawares and forced my hand, slowly but surely.

They’re pretty ace live too. The sisters (Jennifer and Laura Rogers) and the honorary ‘sister’ Miyuki Furtado spread themselves out across the stage and got on with the business of rocking the kids assembled for BYOP. Jennifer and Miyuki dash across the stage live their lives depended on it. The sound quality wasn’t exactly top notch, but they put on a pretty fine show, which seemed to be mostly comprised of songs from The Invisible Deck (i.e. I recognised them!)
After seeing them, I love this album even more now. The crunching bass-pounding energy of the likes of Why Won’t You, Never Learn to Cry, and The Light, which are just great pop tunes, are also fantastic live. The brattish-sounding “I don’t care/ it's not enough/ I want more” vocal of Money Matters sounds like it could be a lyric from BYOP, but it’s actually an anti-greed rant. Not subtle, but effective. Album closer Sooner or Later, with its steady pounding bassline and messy guitar riffing is stretched out to a glorious 8:19 mins.

At the gig, they saved the best till last. My album favourite is a bit of a departure from most of the other tracks. A 6-minute, dark brooding epic called Your Littlest World, with guitars menacing like dark storm clouds on the horizon. It’s a great closing number to the gig. If the Sisters keep on producing more of this kind of stuff, they’ll be the band that remains memorable, when the sharp, instant punk pop of the night’s headliners is forgotten.

Download: Rogers Sisters - Your Littlest World
Download: Rogers Sisters - You Undecided
Download: Rogers Sisters - Why Won't You?

For some weird reason or other, The Invisible Deck isn't out in the UK till September. But if you're in Britain, you can buy it from the States. It's out there.