Search - Firewater :: Songs We Should Have Written

Firewater brings back the dark mood on this set of covers

S. E Katz | Boston, MA | 02/27/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Firewater has always been a chameleonic group of guys, with each of their four studio albums sounding almost nothing alike while retaining a very specific feel that can only be done by Tod A and his crew. For their fifth album, Firewater covers a wide variety of artists, some well known some not so well known, and have definitely returned to the very dark feel of Get Off the Cross...We Need the Wood for the Fire. You won't find too many of their more up tempo tracks along the lines of "So Long, Superman," "Dark Days Indeed" or "Get Out of My Head." This is by no means a bad thing, as their dirge-like styles suit so many of the covers they have chosen. The album begins with the slowly paced Sonny and Cher cover "The Beat Goes On," featuring Britta Phillips in a duet with the distinctive voice of Tod A, making for an excellent contrast in sound. It is followed by the first of two songs written by Lee Hazelwood, "This Town," featuring an excellent guitar solo from Oren Kaplan. Things really pick up with their reworking of Tom Waits' "Diamonds and Gold," a slightly sunnier song featuring some nice marimba and violin parts.The cover of Cash's masterpiece "Folsom Prison Blues" comes next. It's amazing how the addition of some minor bass arpeggios and guitar chords can make a song sound so dark and evil. Tod's voice sounds great on this track. What follows is the most upbeat and cheery song on the album, the instrumental cover of Lyn Taitt and the Comets' "Storm Warning." It's reminiscent of their Ponzi suite instrumentals, featuring excellent horn work from Ori Kaplan.The Beatles' "Hey Bulldog" is next, which is simply an excellent track in every way. Along with the next track, "Some Velvet Morning," it represents the strongest portion of the album. "Some Velvet Morning" is a trippy dirge remake of the Lee Hazelwood/Nancy Sinatra original, featuring Britta Phillips for the second time on the album. It's fantastic. The next song is pure silliness, as they felt the need to cover the old favorite "This Little Light of Mine" that people always force little kids to sing in elementary school music classes. It's just stupid fun, but still a well structured and performed song.Next comes their "Paint it Black" cover, the sole reason (outside of it being a new Firewater album) I picked this disc up. It's a beautiful, slow paced rendition tinged with a middle eastern feel (brought to head by sitar and tabla lines) that picks up the tempo 4 minutes in. Excellent. The final two songs are also great works on their own, with "I Often Dream of Trains" being specifically powerful. Every song on this album is a winner. Firewater has made one of the best covers albums of our time, though that's not too much of a surprise given their track record of unparalleled music on their first four albums. Buy Songs We Should Have Written for "Folsom Prison" and "Paint it Black." Love Songs We Should Have Written for "Hey Bulldog" and "Some Velvet Morning.""