Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 10/07/1997
Run Time: 35:52
Once
Jeff Beck joined
the Yardbirds, the group began to explore uncharted territory, expanding their
blues-rock into wild sonic permutations of
psychedelia, Indian music, and
avant-garde white noise. Each subsequent single displayed a new direction, one that expanded on the ideas of the previous single, so it would seem that
Roger the Engineer --
Beck's first full album with the group and the band's first album of all-original material -- would have offered them the opportunity to fully explore their adventurous inclinations. Despite a handful of brilliant moments,
Roger the Engineer falls short of expectations, partially because the band is reluctant to leave their
blues roots behind and partially because they simply can't write a consistent set of songs. At their best on
Roger,
the Yardbirds strike a kinetic balance of
blues-rock form and explosive
psychedelia (
"Lost Woman," "Over, Under Sideways, Down," "The Nazz Are Blue," "He's Always There," "Psycho Daisies"), but they can also bog down in silly Eastern drones (although
"Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" is a classic piece of menacing
psychedelia) or
blues tradition (
"Jeff's Boogie" is a pointless guitar workout that doesn't even showcase
Beck at his most imaginative). The result is an unfocused record that careens between the great and the merely adequate, but
the Yardbirds always had a problem with consistency -- none of their early albums had the impact of the singles, and
Roger the Engineer suffers from the same problem. Nevertheless, it is
the Yardbirds' best individual studio album, offering some of their very best
psychedelia, even if it doesn't rank among the great albums of its era.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
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