Album Review: Tim Rogers - Rogers Sings Rogerstein

If anyone in the Aussie scene has earned the right to experiment with their craft a little it's tousled troubadour Tim Rogers. In amongst more than two decades and nine albums fronting rock stalwarts You Am I, Rogers has now accumulated six records under various solo guises – some under his own name, some abetted by purpose-built bands such as The Twin Set and The Temperance Union – and it's in this mode where he's given himself license to think outside the box that is rock'n'roll's traditional construct, with never less than interesting results over the journey.

Musically, Rogers Sings Rogerstein is all over the shop – he touches on country (Out Of Our Tiny Lil' Minds), rock (Drivin At Night), glam (One O The Girls) and even carnival sounds get a look in (All Or Nothing) – but he's clearly comfortable showcasing these disparate influences and it all hangs together cohesively, probably due to Rogers' sweetly-hewed voice, as soothing as it is familiar. Lyrically it's one of his best batches of words for ages – the pathos inherent in the lush Part Time Dads would find it at home on Hourly Daily, the resigned contempt of I Love You Just As Your Are, Now Change is instantly relatable, as is the laidback optimism of Walking Past The Bars – but every song contains at least one line or couplet about some seemingly insignificant minutiae with becomes significantly insightful in Rogers' adroit grip.

On its own this album isn't going to change worlds, but it slots nicely into a body of work that's becoming as consistently excellent as it is constantly eclectic, another brick in an increasingly sturdy artistic wall.