by request
AllMusic Review by Stewart Mason
By the mid-'90s, Wayne Rogers' primary musical
outlet, the Magic Hour, were busy exploring extended instrumental drones
and reveries, with songs that would undulate for a good 15 or 20
minutes before finally fading away. Rogers has never been the type to
stay in one style for very long, however, and as a result of these
ever-expanding tendencies on the part of the Magic Hour, his third solo
album is his most concise and song-oriented album. Aside from the
eight-minute title track, which finds Rogers trading overdubbed guitar
solos with himself like an American version of the Bevis Frond, and a
seven-minute closer, the predominantly acoustic tracks on All Good Works
hover around the two-to-three-minute range, with recognizable
verse-chorus-bridge structures. The results, especially the meditative
"January First," sound rather a lot like Galaxie 500 (ironic since Damon
& Naomi were the Magic Hour's rhythm section), although Rogers' one
flaw, his thin and reedy vocal style, lacks the charm of Dean Wareham's
conversational voice. Closer to the brief of Rogers' first band,
Crystalized Movements, than his other solo albums, All Good Works is an
excellent starting point for the Rogers novice.
Tracklist
| 1 | January 1st | 1:39 |
| 2 | The Gateway And The Stars | 3:10 |
| 3 | So Gone | 2:50 |
| 4 | Seventy | 2:21 |
| 5 | What Sense | 2:40 |
| 6 | Still Smiling At The End | 3:19 |
| 7 | The Point Of No Life | 2:50 |
| 8 | You Have To See | 2:19 |
| 9 | I've Turned Away | 2:44 |
| 10 | All Good Works | 8:35 |
| 11 | The Missing Part | 7:35 |
