Roger the Engineer [JVC Japan]

• Artist: Yardbirds
• Rating:
• Release Date: December 05, 2005
• Genre: Rock

Review

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

Tracks

Track Title	Composers	Performers	Time
Lost Women		The Yardbirds
Over, Under, Sideways, Down		The Yardbirds
Nazz Are Blue		The Yardbirds
I Can't Make Your Way		The Yardbirds
Rack My Mind		The Yardbirds
Farewell		The Yardbirds
Hot House of Omagararshid		The Yardbirds
Jeff's Boogie		The Yardbirds
He's Always There		The Yardbirds
Turn into Earth		The Yardbirds
What Do You Want		The Yardbirds
Ever Since the World Began		The Yardbirds