Bad times can make for good art, and the revolutionary feel of the early 2010s -- the Occupy movement, and especially the Arab Spring -- are at the heart of Firewater's International Orange! Firewater frontman Tod A. recorded this album in Istanbul and Tel Aviv during the 2011 riots, and there's a vital energy in these songs that is almost palpable. Even better, the sense of humor that was downplayed on the band's previous few albums is back in full force, giving the album's first half a bright, buoyant theatricality ...
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Bad times can make for good art, and the revolutionary feel of the early 2010s -- the Occupy movement, and especially the Arab Spring -- are at the heart of Firewater's International Orange! Firewater frontman Tod A. recorded this album in Istanbul and Tel Aviv during the 2011 riots, and there's a vital energy in these songs that is almost palpable. Even better, the sense of humor that was downplayed on the band's previous few albums is back in full force, giving the album's first half a bright, buoyant theatricality suggesting that International Orange! could be a musical about those tumultuous times. The album's first four songs are so strong and impassioned that they'd be worth the price of admission on their own. "A Little Revolution" kicks off the proceedings with purposeful mischief; "Dead Man's Boots" puts the "party" back in political party with lumbering ska-punk as it reminds listeners to seize the good times even when things seem to be at their worst; "Up from the Underground" sounds like the theme song for a rag-tag gang of revolutionaries; and "Glitter Days" boasts A.'s more typical sardonic outlook as well as some great imagery ("my life is a toothache"). Throughout International Orange!, Firewater blends sounds from different cultures -- bhangra, ska, rebetiko -- into melodies and rhythms that lope, swing, and punch, but as the album unfolds, its dynamic yang gives way to a rootless, restless yin on songs such as "Strange Life," which distantly echoes "Paint It, Black" as it dives into the shadows that always seem to be lurking around the corners in Firewater's world. Even "Tropical Depression"'s cleverly kitschy outburst holds emptiness inside of it like the eye of a hurricane. By the time "The Bonney Anne" brings International Orange! to a close, it undercuts much of the previous jollity, leaving listeners feeling haunted and unresolved. This emotional roller coaster makes the album that much more intriguing, though, and if it's not Firewater's finest album, then it's certainly one of the band's most carefully crafted and listenable ones. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi
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