The Rogers Sisters

Supersweet - Invisible Deck Review - 04/10/06

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The Rogers Sisters (Too Pure)
The Invisible Deck

A drum pounds eight times like someone furiously demanding to be let through a door. A bass and guitar join the tattoo with as much determination. Perhaps the latch buckles or the hinges come off, because Laura and Jennifer Rogers and Miyuki Furtado tumble through into your head.

The effect is pronounced if you are listening to this, The Rogers Sisters’ third outing, on a pair of earphones. It’s an invitation, more an insistence, that you open your mind to something very cool and interesting, probably educational too.

The Invisible Deck is luckily not the sort of album that needs to ask twice. Opener ‘Why Won’t You?” has the right ingredients to quicken the heart on first acquaintance. It is tightly constructed and places all three ‘sisters’ in their element, through to the dramatically-drafted vocals of Miyuki and Jennifer, in unison mounting almost an inquisition: “Why won’t you say what’s wrong? / Why won’t anyone believe your story?”

It’s an apt introduction to an album that has a very questioning feel. Several songs benefit from a sense of personalised dialogue that acts as a powerful draw for impressionable ears. For example, the clever tempo-shifting bass line of single ‘Never Learn to Cry’ tunes in and prepares the mind so that when asked, “Do you have a dream that does not belong to you?” the words interface like some kind of psychotherapeutic soul sponge.

Paradoxically, you don’t have to stretch your imagination to work out what a great and powerful live act these same songs will produce. Of these, none serves as better exhibition than fourth track ‘Your Littlest World’. It rolls in slow and yet heady and hugely atmospheric, marking The Rogers Sisters as a great ‘scene’ band. The lyrics’ advocating of individual world-expansion captures the ultra-hip cult stance of someone like Grace Slick.

In doing so The Invisible Deck is afforded a slightly darker edge than previous Rogers Sisters albums – perhaps indicative of the growing presence of Furtado, who is now much more than the token non-sister guitarist he may once have seemed. His vocals are the ones most audible at the album’s outset (though this layering is a production technique as easily reversed on later numbers) and most of the songs are much more guitar-driven than before. It is certain that his influence now gives greater versatility to the outfit, begging in itself a hidden question – is Furtado in fact the ‘invisible deck’?

According to Jennifer Rogers, the album’s title comes from a card trick the girls’ father used to perform, but she and Laura allow that the name was chosen for its open interpretation. A good one then, for a record where every track is face or trump card. The meaning and value of each, however, is left to the listener. “Don’t get excited / It’s you undecided” comes a whisper from amidst one of the Deck’s rockier outings. That’s a nice idea – but it’s not that easy staying calm when you find you’re holding a royal flush.

Words: Alderson

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