Rogue Wave

Rogue Wave returns in all its jangly, indie-pop glory with Asleep at Heaven's Gate, its third full-length album. While Rogue Wave's last album, Descended Like Vultures, acquired a fair amount of attention with its constant airplay on the third season of the O.C,, the band has spent the last two years as quiet as the show's dead main character.

Asleep at Heaven's Gate breaks the silence with an evolved sound that is more polished and less discordant than the band's previous releases. Gone are the random cacophonous noises that accented the older songs. What remains is a showcase of lead singer Zach Rogue's voice, which is melodic with a welcome aftertaste of surprisingly non-obnoxious melancholy.

The album is undoubtedly strongest at its beginning. It gets off to a more-than-promising start with "Harmonium," where the catchy-without-being-annoying beat and gradually escalating vocals meld into a progression that is rich and variant enough that its lengthy six minutes seem to go by in a fraction of the time. The album continues to gain momentum, climaxing at the fourth track with the most upbeat of Rogue's offerings, "Lake Michigan." A track so enjoyable with its twitching, hand-clapping indie-pop sound that you can forgive and embrace the fact that even your roommate, who only listens to Shania Twain and Gwen Stefani, likes it too.

The problem is that the album disintegrates from there, going from remarkable to unmemorable before the next song, "Lullaby," hits the two-minute mark. The streak of faded, repetitive melodies persists through the final song, transforming Asleep at Heaven's Gate into the ideal cure for insomnia. Granted, it's a pleasant sleep-inducing experience, but the substantial fact remains that the album fails to fully reengage the listener over the course of the last eight tracks.

Still, the beginning of Asleep at Heaven's Gate nearly compensates for the shortcomings of the album's following two-thirds, making a full-length listen worth the risk of falling asleep during some not-too-busy afternoon when you were probably going to take a nap anyway.