City Newspaper Archives - 12/2006
Roger Houston "Flowers in the Desert"
Published by Saby Reyes-Kulkarni on Dec 06, 2006
Roger HoustonFlowers in the Desert
Self-released
Don't let his skeletal arrangements and self-effacing charm fool you. Roger Houston (who once proclaimed himself "America's favorite fuck-you clown") possesses a sophisticated writing mind; he merely prefers lo-fi means to express it. When his vocal melodies and harmonies make an entrance into his tinny, stabbing synthscapes, it becomes obvious that Houston has seen the bedrock of sublime beauty that lies buried deep beneath pop's shiny exterior.While producer Nic Marinaccio wisely upholds Houston's spare sound by smoothing over the rough edges almost invisibly, Flowers presents some of Houston's most challenging material to date. On one song, for example, experimental saxophonist Chris Wicks cameos to lift a ghostly, already gorgeous keyboard arrangement to stratospheric heights. Houston may make you laugh, but his stuff hits --- no, touches --- where it hurts.
