Firewater, Songs We Should Have Written

Just six months after releasing The Man on the Burning Tightrope, acerbic New York combo Firewater returns with this collection of covers, a good showcase for their sense of the smartly sinister. We’ve got no argument with their song selection, a nice blend of the obvious (“Folsom Prison Blues”) and unexpected (“This Little Light of Mine”) that alternates numbers by 1980s underground guys like Robyn Hitchcock with old standards made famous by Peggy Lee and Frank Sinatra. And there’s fire in their playing; clearly, these really are songs the Firewater boys wish they’d written. Sometimes that means a little too much faithfulness, as with “Diamonds and Gold,” too much of Tom Waits’ original with the edges sanded off—which begs the question, what’s the point? On the other hand, their slow-burning psychedelic take on “Paint It Black” is pretty great.