Search - Firewater :: Ponzi Scheme (Metal Box)

Wonderfully Depressing

11/14/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a great album. Tod A. doesn't hesitate mocking anything, including himself. I'm sure his time in the Pokey influenced this album greatly. I enjoy this record so much I hate to tell others about it for fear that I will lose the feeling that this music belongs to me. It's a great album. Buy it."

I fell like a hammer for the spike...

J. mikitson | chicago, illinois | 09/19/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"wow...if you like evil clowns and twisted carnivals (and who doesn't?), then this is the album for you. there is a definite tom waitsy, nick cavish feeling to it, with a more marching-band feeling than they usually have. the first time i heard this, i had to pick up the ray bradbury book "something wicked this way comes," which i hadn't read in years and believe me, this was the perfect soundtrack for that eerie story. there are quite a few delicious songs on this record - i usually play the whole thing through without skipping any tracks...always a good thing when you can do that, eh? the first song i fell in love with and repeated over and over and over - well, you get the idea - was "so long, superman," a marvelous escape-from-my-mundane-life song...a theme that's been tackled a time or two in musical history but is still enjoyable when it's done with some creativity. "i still love you, judas" has some awesome lines in it, (like the one i used in the title) and "isle of dogs" is another of my favourites. i actually know a girl who got a lyric from that song tattoed on her right shoulder. i don't like it quite enough to do that but this guy is definitely a poet and that's one of the reasons why i listen to this record all the time - he comes up with some very unique and post-modern lyrics and those along with the organ-grinder tinged sound makes for a listening experience unlike too many out there."

It is a brilliant album

SUPERMAN | THE 40 WATT IN ATHENS | 10/11/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Very dark circus music is how a friend of mine described this CD. That is kind of close. The songs have commercial appeal, but the lyrics are pitch black and more than a tad disturbing. I stumbled upon this CD by accident, did not even know what the name of the band was for quite awhile, just listened to it over and over. I have bought several of their other CDs since, but this is their best. Kind of a cross between Oingo Boingo and Tom Waits."