| Try as you might, you just can’t pin
the Rolls down. Their eclectic blend of blues and melodic indie-rock starts
somewhere around the Beatles and the Kinks and ends beyond where any current Chicago bands
are taking us – style-wise, at least. When listening to the Rolls’ latest
album, Incommunicado, one hears a range of musical influences so diverse and yet
so satisfyingly cohesive that to fully grasp the scope of the album one must listen to it
again.
Some of the lyrics are – and I mean
this – downright funny. Self-depreciating pop has a habit of annoying after a
while, but the Rolls have a way of making their ironic musings somewhat endearing.
Songs like “Actor” and “Tomorrow We Die Like Dogs (But Tonight We Dine with
Kings),” like the best songs of this confused post-grunge era, make self-hate kinda
funny. But not all the songs are so tongue-in-cheek. Jam sessions (the two
LP-style “intermission” pieces), retro (“I Don’t Know”) and
dramatic, introspective Brit-poppy ballads (“Banquet Hall”) also pepper this
15-song
album and make it the interesting piece of work that it is.
I can only guess the Rolls have even more to
offer during a live set. And from what’s been captured on this album, I can
assure you this is a show you don’t want to miss.
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