Alli Rogers
August 10, 2004
Everything But Scared
The album starts off strong with Everything But Scared, which you can interpret in many different ways. It’s a spiritual song, a love song, a friendship song, and there are several other ways to listen to this song. But everyone knows the feeling where something happens to you that you had never expected to happen. And if it hasn’t happened to you (yet), you probably thought/dreamed of it. There are moments in our lives where we are vulnerable and sometimes even want to be vulnerable. Alli Rogers lays bare her soul in her music, and brings us this honest message of love, hope, vulnerability, and all the other emotions. You can hear she believes in what she sings cause it shines through in the song.
Eden
The title track of the album is also one of the strongest tracks on the album, even though there hardly are any weaker points on this album. This song has some beautiful vocal harmonies during some parts of the song, and the lyrics are phenomenal: “We’re all homesick/Is love the reason?/My hunger led me to your hope/Until the end of this colder season/Keep us warm”. The guitar melody is just perfectly placed in harmony with Alli’s vocals and she puts the accents on the right places.
Music
The album carries on very strongly with Music which to me is just one of the most beautifully composed love songs. Sung with devotion and passion and musically quite interesting with some brass instruments woven through, this song sticks out as well. Once again, also lyrically.
Choosing
Choosing is a typical singer/songwriter song, Alli accompanying herself on the guitar. It’s a beautiful little song, and everything fits nicely. She pauses and emphasizes the song on the right places and brings out the words well. However, I think this isn’t one of the very best songs on “Always Eden” because Alli Rogers has something special that she can bring out in her music, that she has shown us on the previous songs, and maybe it’s just me, but I am missing that little bit extra on this song.
Beautiful
This song deserves a lot of credit. The passion and devotion in this song are phenomenal, and the story it tells of a mother encouraging her insecure child turning into the child encouraging the insecure mother is a wonderful message and the honesty of this song lifts it up to a remarkably high level. To me, this is one of the top 3 songs on the album.
Love You
Love You, lyrically, could be the strongest song on the album. And that says a lot, as all the songs on this album are very strong lyrically. Love You tells a story that compared to love (whether it is love for God, love for a partner, love for a child, a friend, etc. etc.) nothing else is so important that love needs to get out of the way. There’s so much for us to do and to learn and through love we learn and experience it all. Alli Rogers comes across like a very wise young lady and gives us a glimpse of her wisdome through her excellent songs.
We Were Wrong
When listening to We Were Wrong I feel a little bit similar as I did with Choosing. It’s a good song, but it misses that little bit extra to make it an amazing song.
Right From Wrong
If there’s one song on this album that I couldn’t get into completely, it would have to be Right From Wrong. I can’t really say anything too bad about it, because it’s just a good song. And I like how it sounds a little different from the rest of the album, but that’s also my critique. It doesn’t completely fit (musically) with the rest of the album, and also I guess I felt like Alli’s vocals didn’t come out as perfectly as on the other songs.
If I Ever
If I Ever, however, is my favorite song on the whole album. “I don’t have words to tell you how I’m feeling/I don’t think any language can/At times like these silence is appealing/Somehow I know you understand”. Once again Alli shines as a songwriter, lyrically and musically. And the backing vocals that support her during parts of the song are absolutely perfect. The way you feel yourself get lost in the music, almost like the lovers who surrender to each other completely in the song, is magical. This song is the crown on the work. The icing on the cake. It’s the ultimate proof of the talent that is Alli Rogers.
Who Is This God?
I’m not a very religious man myself, but yet I could identify with this religiously inspired song. Of course there are a lot of religious and spiritual references in this song, but still I can just get the feeling of finding oneself in this song. It’s not one of the highlights off the album for me, but it is a very good song indeed.
Nothing To Cry About
“Always Eden” closes with one of the better singer/songwriter tracks of the past years. Nothing To Cry About is a comforting, yet painfully honest song that speaks to you straight from heart to heart. With someone like Alli singing to you that there’ll be someone to support and take care of you, you feel like nothing will ever go wrong anymore. When someone can make you feel like that through music, we have to realize that that person has a great future ahead of her.
Alli Rogers brings you “Always Eden”, a collection of 11 strong songs, both lyrically and musically. This new name in singer/songwriter land has plenty of talent and knows how to write and perform songs from the heart, songs that can touch people and inspire people. “Always Eden” features stories of songs that we all recognize and Alli knows how to play/sing them so that you can (re-)experience them. She brings the music closer to you, so that you can keep it in your heart and enjoy it for life.