#488 The Best Album of 2001, Round 1 Match #52: Life Without Buildings vs. Firewater
Hey folks!
Today’s Best Album of 2001 match is:
#35 Life Without Buildings, ANY OTHER CITY
vs.
#94 Firewater, PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
To vote, follow this link to the Google Form. You will need a Google login to vote. If you can’t or won’t have one, let me know ASAP (either through this newsletter, my email [kentmbeeson@hey.com] or on the Best Album Brackets Bluesky account) and I’ll see what I can do.
We have one Designated Cheerleader today, it’s for PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY, and it’s from @lanna.bsky.social. Take it away, Alana!
2001 was not a huge year for me going to shows. That would come later when I started getting press passes. But there was one show I wanted to see desperately: Firewater.
The problem was, they were playing in New York City, and I lived near Philadelphia, and I was working through agoraphobia/anxiety around doing anything by myself or that couldn’t be modeled. NYC was generally out of the question without someone else going with me, but I loved Firewater SO MUCH.
I fell in love with Firewater probably in 1999 or early 2000. I’d started living with this guy, and he had the best kind of CDs: those I’d heard about but had never heard. I was a musician’s kid, and pirating wasn’t really my jam. Finding a few songs here and there on someone else’s Gnapster so I could finally hear what the women from Angry Women in Rock sounded like? Okay. Albums that were never released in the US? Yes. But otherwise, I let music come to me (usually through the radio or people I dated), and here was a goldmine: Jawbreaker, Sunny Day Real Estate, Cop Shoot Cop, and more that sounded vaguely familiar or I’d seen a video for and desperately wanted to hear more.
One was this album that had a smoking, drinking Jesus on the cover, and the letters were fakey-Russian. This did not impress me, but when I played it? Oh. My. God. Klezmer-influenced rock. I adored it. (Oh wait, maybe THIS is how I found Jennifer Charles, although I guess it still might’ve been through my friend Rob. –see Lovage DC)
It also became a favorite of my toddler, who would do the toddler dance to it (if you’re a parent, you probably know the one, where the knees bend in time to the music and NOTHING ELSE).
Was there another CD by Firewater in the batch? There sure was! Amazing!
So when this third album came out, I needed to see them. I NEEDED to. I was begging people to go with me, so I could go without an anxiety attack or setting off a manic episode.
And then 9/11 happened.
I have a memory of them cancelling and rescheduling–I have no idea if this is correct. I think it is. I wasn’t ready to go to New York yet by the time it was rescheduled. One of my best friends from high school watched a tower go down from a nearby building and scrambled to get out of the city, and I, like so many others, had waited for her call for hours, terrified she was dead. She checked in at the end of the day, and her tale was harrowing, like nothing I’d ever heard in my life.
The (rescheduled?) show was a few days after my birthday. I should’ve gone. I wouldn’t see Firewater live until 2008.
Okay, let’s get to the album:
For some, Psychopharmacology felt like a drop-off, but what I’d say is that it’s less inclined to wear diverse influences on its sleeve, and there’s nothing wrong with that. These are rock songs. They are great songs. No one’s doing the hora to them, boo-hoo. They have Tod A (Tod Ashley)’s excellent voice and excellent lyrics and why would anyone need anything else?
Bonus: Jennifer Charles is back!
An Orlando Weekly review called it “bathed in Jetset’s trademark ’60s go-go pastiche,” but I wouldn’t have gone there myself, especially since the duet is described as “PJ Harvey/Nick Cave-esque.” However, Ashley himself described the album as “Brain Wilson on the wrong medication,” so maybe there’s something to that after all.
I always thought of “Fell Off the Face of the Earth” to be Beatles-y, but I also figured I was being a bit Boss Baby about the whole thing (to put it into today’s parlance).
“Firewater fans are a glum bunch who’ve criticized me of being too upbeat on this record,” Tod A joked in an interview with Aquarian Weekly, and it’s that exact criticism I’d heard at the time and rejected. If anything, this is an album that is trying to illustrate emotional lows in a way that doesn’t drag you down with them, that can sound done with life while also being sharply critical of the things in life that led there.
I know this album has tough competition going into the tournament, but I do wonder if it has the ability to beat the art rock-y Life Without Buildings. (Like every time I’ve heard The Fall outside of Jon Solomon’s holiday marathon, I found Any Other City to be most like going to someone's open mic night; unlike The Fall, I find Any Other City entrancing.)
We’ll see. I know Kent (like/)loves it. Maybe you will, too.
Thank you, Alana!
Click here to see the current results for the entire tournament, and click here to see the current results for the prediction bracket contest.
Yesterday, #30 Yeah Yeah Yeahs, YEAH YEAH YEAHS ep defeated #99 Lightning Bolt, RIDE THE SKIES, 112-98-2.
Thanks,
Kent
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