By now, Rogue Wave has had some time to get used to being a band. The quartet didn't actually debut until Rogue Wave's second album-- Zach Rogue recorded the first one, 2004's Out of the Shadow, mostly on his own. In the two years since Descended Like Vultures, the group has seemingly worked on honing a consistent sound for itself, and the result, Asleep at Heaven's Gate, is their dreamiest and loudest LP yet. The album has some sonic parallels with vintage Built to Spill, especially in the way the vocals are layered, but it's not quite as direct as that band's more classic rock-derived songwriting.
Asleep at Heaven's Gate has a different, more pointedly ascendant feel from the outset. "Harmonium" is over six minutes of alternately drifting and pounding space-pop. The verses slip quietly along on Patrick Abernethy's echoing piano part, and the surrounding passages take a descending guitar motif to the rafters, with Pat Spurgeon hammering every beat with his kick drum, then later on the snare as Rogue and Gram LeBron lay down sheets of astral guitar. Those glittering passages are the blueprint for "Chicago x 12," which ends with a cut-tempo coda featuring whale-song guitars and gets there with guitar- and keyboard-soaked verses powered by snares on every beat.
The album's highlight comes with the vigorously strummed waltz "Lake Michigan", featuring Rogue's layered vocals singing a tumbling melody over an acoustic guitar and forcefully recorded drums. Clouds of clean-toned electric guitar and Wurlitzer float in the background, dripping with reverb. "Christians in Black", one of the album's two spare, pared-back tracks, brings the album's first half to a captivating, almost bucolic close, featuring little more than Rogue and some richly toned acoustic guitar.
The problem with Asleep at Heaven's Gate is that the second half isn't nearly as strong as the first. "Own Your Own Home" sounds like it's working toward a big, majestic passage on its chorus, but instead of following through on the crescendo, the muscular drums and piano just drop back into the two-stepping verse, and ultimately, an unresolved coda. Closer "Cheaper Than Therapy" does manage to showcase some inspired guitar work, but the vocal melody goes nowhere.
It's a shame the record falls off like it does, because Asleep at Heaven's Gate opens by promising a truly excellent album featuring a couple of Rogue Wave's best songs to date. It's not even that any of the tracks in the second half are bad-- just mostly unremarkable. Still, even taking the late fade into account, those who appreciated the first two Rogue Wave albums will find something here to like, and the best songs are worth anyone's while.
