The future’s bright, the future’s Orange!
Orange are one of those bands that I want to like. Their debut album was a fresh slice of Punk Rock from a band still in their mid-teens, however whilst that was packed with anthems, that had a nice naïve twist, the band’s follow up album 2007’s, ‘Escape From LA’, didn’t progress and in fact had less catchy tunes and a slightly watered down feel, from a band that had suddenly lost direction.
Here on the band’s third album, ‘Phoenix’ we see the band change direction slightly again. This is possibly due to the departures from the band that now only see two of the original band members, Singer/Bassist Joe Dexter and drummer Zak Glosserman, and possibly where the album gets it’s title from.
First song, ‘Each Other’ has a nice guitar riff, and Dexter’s vocals blast out with a slight Johnny Rotten-sneer, sounding for all intense and purposes not too far away from the debut album, albeit in a cleaner-produced way. However with the likes of, ‘Standing Still’ the band show that they are now happier with a middle-of-the-road Pop/Punk direction as we have some keyboards in this up tempo track. Again on, ‘Everything I Need’, Orange have moved from the dirty Punk Rock that was previously associated with them in the vein of Rancid, to a more polished sound of verses with a bouncy bass line and then a chorus that falls just short of catchy. This is slightly more like The Academy Is… and, Cute Is What We Aim For.
We do get flashes of influences from the likes of The Clash, like in, ‘Never Going Out Again’, however whereas other bands would strip the song down, this has a more big sound about it. The music is bold and well layered, but this takes away the whole-heartedness of it. It’s a shame as this is a good song, but I feel it could be slightly better. ‘Hold On To Your Heart’ is a slower track with a chugging guitar laying down for Joe’s vocals to dance over, and I have to say I’m still undecided as to whether his voice suits this sort of music. With the music so well produced, and seemingly re-done to perfection, Joe’s voice, whilst not being that bad has a lazy-edge to it, and he sings in a lower octave than you would expect. That said this is a catchy song.
‘I Wish’ could easily be a Simple Plan ballad but let down by Joe’s vocals, which then are showcased in the more Punky tune of, ‘Desperation’ which is more suited to his voice. It’s this sort of anthem that pulls the band back. ‘Happening Today’ is another step in the right direction but is slightly lacklustre, and whilst it is catchy it lacks some real oomph! Then, and unfortunately, any singing of, ‘Olay, olay, olay, olay’ outside of football terraces (and inside too, if I’m honest) is slightly embarrassing, flashing pictures of Red-coat type crowd participation, so to have this at the beginning of the song for me is not a good start. The good news is that the song gets better, however this still remains the most memorable part…
Now whilst I may have questioned Joe’s voice on the slower songs, in ‘Fall Into The Sky’ it works well, and the song as a whole is well structured. ‘Sunday Night’ is a nice mid-tempo track with some nice breaks and chugging guitars, before we have a cover of Lou Reed’s famous track, ‘Perfect Day’. Now, this is well done, and actually again Joe nails it well, with this piano and vocal track. I do sometimes wonder why you would do a track like this, other than to either showcase the vocalist’s talents, or the band’s love of the song. Both work here, but do we need another version that doesn’t fall that short of the original?
This album can be seen as the start of a new chapter, and in that respect it works very well. The band did seem to be slightly directionless in the previous album, and Joe Dexter admits that he thought that a year ago the band were through, however with the new recruits, you will get a new perspective, and whilst there is a definitive shift in musical styles, it does progress nicely from the previous direction well, and better than other bands like Blink 182, for instance. The band have matured with well written songs and less swearing (like “Get lost! I never want to see you again // ‘Cause you were never my friend // So Fuck off and die! // You Mutherfuckin’ piece of Shit!” taken form ‘Forgive And Forget The Past’ from the debut album ‘Welcome To The World Of Orange’). After a bleak 18 months, the future’s bright, the future’s Orange!