“Well, I ain’t gonna live in your world no more,” sings
Firewater’s Tod A on the opening track of his latest album, The
Golden Hour (Bloodshot Records). The “you” in the sentence refers
to two people: the president, and A’s ex-wife. Several years ago, after
George W. was elected for a second term and A’s marriage fell apart, he
decided it was time for a serious change. So for three years he
wandered throughout India, Pakistan, Turkey, and Israel seeking escape,
inspiration, and adventure.
Apparently he found all three. The Golden Hour is the
artistic expression of this journey, starting with the aforementioned
kiss off, quickly followed by “This Is My Life,” where A proclaims, “I
lost my home, I lost my wife. This is no joke—this is my life.”
The album continues as a lyrical and musical narrative mixing the
personal with the political—A’s mental state and geographic
influences are revealed via the instrumentation, styles, and airport
announcements recorded during his travels.
The first moment of peaceful reflection comes on the fourth track,
“6:45.” The percussion mimics the lapping of small waves on a beach
where the narrator, having escaped to a foreign land with only himself
for company—”to drink alone outside the bar at the end of the
world”—still can’t get what he’s left behind out of his mind.
“There’s a girl with cold eyes, but her stockings are running,” he
sings. “And anyway, she’s just the end of a melody that sings to me of
you.”
It works like a unique travel diary told through song. There are
aspects of tango, mambo, Balkan folk music, Bhangra, klezmer, and ska,
performed by a lineup featuring members of the Jesus Lizard, Gogol
Bordello, They Might Be Giants, the Lounge Lizards, and others.
Firewater joins an ever-growing number of rock bands exploring the
musical influences of Eastern Europe, fusing new rhythms and
instrumentation to the passionate energy of rock and the melodicism of
pop, a much-needed and overdue development that hopefully will permeate
other areas of art and society—maybe even government.