Logo
DiS Needs You: Save our site »
  • Some Velvet Mixtape: 2019 In Reverb, Delay, Distortion & Drone #1 about 13 hours ago
  • James Yorkston - The Route to the Harmonium 1 day ago
  • Teeth of the Sea - Wraith 2 days ago
  • Yann Tiersen - ALL 7 days ago
  • DiScover: IYEARA 7 days ago
  • Two’s Company: Asta Bria & John Metcalfe @ The Playground Theatre 7 days ago
  • Methyl Ethel - Triage 8 days ago
  • “Music as a personal outlet really isn’t all that interesting”: DiS Meets Lewsberg 9 days ago
  • Logo_home2
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • In Photos
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Search
  • Community
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • Blog
  • Community

Lee Rogers

Drawing Clocks

Label: Zenith Cafe Release Date: 05/06/2006

13557
benmarwood by ben marwood June 4th, 2006

It wasn’t highly publicised, but Chris Rea called time on his solo career in 2005. I still hold a party at my house each weekend to celebrate, specifically, the demise of Rea’s insipid rubbish, so imagine my dismay when I find Lee Rogers’ Drawing Clocks to be just like him only – and this is the distressing part – not as good.

Cruelly, it starts not unlike Elliott Smith’s ‘Memory Lane’, albeit with Smith’s dulled, acoustic guitar tone replaced with something glaringly bright and reverberating. Fifteen seconds in, the comparison is nulled as garish slide guitar and bongos appear out of nowhere, and the next hour of your life is plain sailing across a sea of stereotypical blues. Blues, though, may be not the most accurate of terms. Lee Rogers may sound bluesy, slurring his gravelly-voiced diction in the appropriate places, he may even loosen his grip on the English language in an attempt to get that ‘authentic’ feel - "Long gone days I’m glad I seen" being the most comedic of chorus lines, relentlessly repeated over and over - but despite Rogers’ best efforts, Drawing Clocks remains void of emotion.

To go into detail over the negative points would take too long – the painful, lovelorn yet mostly embarrassing lyrics, the reliance on a backing band to add variation to Rogers' otherwise unchanging sound – yet thankfully there is a positive to concentrate on. Whilst more than a couple of songs may sound like the stomach-churning soundtrack to a friends-giggling-on-a-sofa DFS advert, and ‘Breathe’ is so packed with laid-back false emotion that Katie Melua probably turned green with envy, there is one point on Drawing Clocks where everything briefly comes together. The three-beat ‘How Will I Sleep?’ is so strewn with percussion and layers of strummed acoustic guitar that it is more reminiscent of Liquid Skin-era Gomez, especially with Rogers’ tone so similar to one of their vocalists, and whilst the light it shines is only dim and ultimately consumed by the turgid depths of the rest of Drawing Clocks, it is a light nonetheless.

Drawing Clocks will have its admirers. After all, it is the ultimate in easy, cheesy listening, taking pride of place above the coffee-house antics of Corinne Bailey Rae and KT Tunstall, elevating them to untold levels of genius in the process, whilst Lee Rogers himself will probably be adored by the same people who think Jamie Cullum is the best thing to ever happen to jazz. At least Chris Rea rocked out sometimes.

  • 3
    ben marwood's Score
Log-in to rate this record out of 10
Share on
   
Love DiS? Become a Patron of the site here »


LATEST


  • Some Velvet Mixtape: 2019 In Reverb, Delay, Distortion & Drone #1


  • James Yorkston

    The Route to the Harmonium


  • Teeth of the Sea

    Wraith


  • Yann Tiersen

    ALL


  • DiScover: IYEARA


  • Two’s Company: Asta Bria & John Metcalfe @ The Playground Theatre



Left-arrow

The Twilight Singers

Powder Burns

Mobback
13695
13811

V//Formation

Little Heart

Mobforward
Right-arrow


LATEST

    Column


    Some Velvet Mixtape: 2019 In Reverb, Delay, Dis...

  • 106050
  • review


    James Yorkston - The Route to the Harmonium

  • 106055

    review


    Teeth of the Sea - Wraith

  • 106054
  • review


    Yann Tiersen - ALL

  • 106053

    Interview


    DiScover: IYEARA

  • 106046
  • Live Review


    Two’s Company: Asta Bria & John Metcalfe @ ...

  • 106052

    review


    Methyl Ethel - Triage

  • 106051
  • Interview


    “Music as a personal outlet really isn’t all th...

  • 106049
MORE


    feature


    Community Creates: An indie rock guide to getti...

  • 12174
  • feature


    (This Is) The Dream Of Jimmy and Ben: 10 years ...

  • 93514

    Interview


    DiS meets Anton Newcombe from The Brian Jonesto...

  • 96546
  • feature


    DiS does Wireless... half the time, anyway

  • 25065

    feature


    The Icarus Line: a perpetual appetite for destr...

  • 24537
  • Interview


    Billy Corgan: "I have a problem with the way po...

  • 98775

    Interview


    DiScover: Wolf Alice

  • 99480
  • feature


    PJ Harvey: "There are no rules, and you can mak...

  • 28026
MORE

Drowned in Sound
  • DROWNED IN SOUND
  • HOME
  • SITE MAP
  • NEWS
  • IN DEPTH
  • IN PHOTOS
  • RECORDS
  • RECOMMENDED RECORDS
  • ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
  • FESTIVAL COVERAGE
  • COMMUNITY
  • MUSIC FORUM
  • SOCIAL BOARD
  • REPORT ERRORS
  • CONTACT US
  • JOIN OUR MAILING LIST
  • FOLLOW DiS
  • GOOGLE+
  • FACEBOOK
  • TWITTER
  • SHUFFLER
  • TUMBLR
  • YOUTUBE
  • RSS FEED
  • RSS EMAIL SUBSCRIBE
  • MISC
  • TERM OF USE
  • PRIVACY
  • ADVERTISING
  • OUR WIKIPEDIA
© 2000-2019 DROWNED IN SOUND