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Rating: In this fabulous album by Firewater, the most disparate and desperate genres coexist: Blues, Kabarett songs in a Waitsian style, frenetic Klezmer, Indian wedding music (from India, not Native Americans), Drinking Songs with a Central European twist that evoke the dust of empty shops and the teardrop eyes of the spectacular women from over there. A hidden splendor, a pearl I discovered by chance and from which I haven't been able to part for years now... but then again, how can you not shake your hips to the joy of "A Drunken Jew" with its "wedding and funeral" orchestra reminiscent of Bregović? How can you not be the snooty troublemaker with the lopsided and rusty rock of "One Of Those"?
These songs are the perfect soundtrack for your last few drunken binges, the few remaining: those nauseating and hard-to-handle ones typical of advanced age...they are the perfect revocation of your license as drunks and failures. Everything shines in a village dance hall: our heroes of anonymous songwriting delight us with their drinking shoes polished with spit. Listen to "Mr Cardiac", simply irresistible, sung by a certain Jennifer Charles, who tells us about the adventures of the charming Mr Cardiac always awaiting the apoplectic stroke that will kill him...but will never show up. Ulp! "Balaliaka" is the most Waitsian and Gypsy song of the bunch: a love snort that turns into a skewed version of the Madness accompanied by the Kocani Orkestar..absolutely to be danced with the woman of your heart while the moon screams at you: "Pistolotti, it's late! Don't you think it's time to go to bed?"
I don't know, maybe it's my Croatian origins...maybe the nostalgia of the fierce drunks, and how long has it been since I've had one, but this album has taken my heart and won't detach from my right ventricle: I'm slowly turning into Mr Cardiac! But listen to "Refinery" and tell me if these four nuts aren't truly cunning musicians: pure theatrical talent in the service of joy and lightheartedness...beautiful stories told with varied instruments in the manner of 16 Horsepower, country bands, and the best worn-out minstrels.
Buy this album, as well as the latest exhilarating "The Man on The Burning Tight Rope"Gypsy Violins and beautiful women, ancient wooden stairs leading up to the cemetery and cheerful funerals; pitch-black joy and imaginary drinking: what more do you want, I ask?
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