His latest and seventh album – Tall Pop Syndrome (bow down to that polysemous album title!) – came about after Jack Ladder (real name: Tim Rogers) was invited to support The Killers last year and re-examined the logistics of his live show.
“Maybe I could write a whole new album, tailor made to open a stadium show, solo with no backline.”
Throughout, Rogers’ deliciously rich baritone is embellished by minimal electronic accompaniment and 808 beats. The pulsing Heavy Weight Champion is a contemplation on baritone singers being “the heavyweights of the music world”, with Rogers himself a reluctant member of this exclusive club: “I didn’t ask to be born into this class division…”
Keep up with the latest music news, features, festivals, interviews and reviews here.
“I don’t go to clubs/ I’d rather stay at home/ Where the drinks are cheap/ No one stepping on my toes/ And I dance alone” – opening lead single Home Alone celebrates making your own fun, in-house, while supplying a soundtrack for this purpose and also name-checking inspirational lost legends (Prince, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Little Richard, Aretha Franklin etc.).
With its menacing bass undercurrent and galloping arpeggiated synths, I’m Melting will delight Depeche Mode fans. “I’m melting like a flower in a Fukushima bed” – here Rogers references the malformed daisies that grew following 2011’s nuclear power plant explosion; beautiful freaks kinda like Rogers himself, who has previously been aptly described as “the perfect culmination of Bryan Ferry and Oscar The Grouch”.
Label: Endless Recordings
Release date: July 14
