Firewater “International Orange” Review

I was really excited for Firewater’s latest album, especially after I heard that he ran off to travel the world again to record it much like he did when creating his amazing 2008 album “The Golden Hour”. However, I’ve given it several listens now and I gotta say I’m rather disappointed. Musically it’s much like the world-punk style of “The Golden Hour” which normally would be grand but for some reason on “International Orange” most of Tod A.’s wonderful pathos is missing.

The lyrics themselves are definitely part of the problem. Most of “International Orange” is full of generic sounding calls to revolution rather than the angry heart-baring shouts to sky, personal laments, and biting wit that made prior Firewater albums so gripping. There is no song like “This is My Life” on the album with it’s sorrow-filled punch in the heart that somehow amazingly also feels like celebration:

I’ve never cared for authority
I’ve never felt part of the majority
Well I lost my home
And I lost my wife
This is no joke
Yeah, this is my life
This is my life

In contrast, here are the lyrics to “Up from the Underground”

Well you can shut us up
But you can’t shut us down
Cause we are coming up
From the underground
You can chop down the tree
But you can’t kill the seed
A few molotov cocktails are all that we need
You can lock us up
But you can’t lock us down

Generic. 

This PopMatters review by John M. Tryneski really says it best:

“These songs lack any specificity of insight about the current moment or, failing that, any sort of timeless relatability that could transcend the day’s events. Instead we’re just left with boilerplate laments about hard times and vague warnings aimed at a generic ‘them’ from an equally unspecific ‘us’.”

There are a few fun songs on the album — “The Monkey Song” and “Strange Life” — but yeah it’s mostly disappointing… but hey every artist has a meh album or two or three and Tod A has quite an amazing back catalog which still rocks strong years later. And judging by Firewater’s prior concerts I’m sure the live show (Independent Sept 29th) will still kick ass. I personally can’t wait to boogie to “The Monkey Song”.