This came out in 2004 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Singer-bassist Tod A., the black-hearted ringleader of New York underground rockers Firewater, is hardly a slouch in the songwriting department. Still, even an evil genius has heroes and icons.
So, on Songs We Should Have Written, the acerbic Mr. A and his loose-knit cabal of co-conspirators tick a few names off of Tod’s own personal hit list. Some of the targets are no-brainers — there’s a typically clanky take on Tom Waits’ Diamonds And Gold, a slow-burning version of Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues, a noirish rendition of Lee Hazelwood’s This Town, and a woozy, Indian-flavoured version of The Rolling Stones’ Paint It Black. Plenaty of other offerings, however, are eyebrow-raisers — like the edgy reworking of The Beatles’ Hey Bulldog, the sacrilegiously funky update of the gospel classic This Little Light Of Mine, and Tod’s sensually rumbling duet with Britta Phillips on Sonny Bono’s The Beat Goes On. No, Tod didn’t write these tunes — but thankfully, that didn’t stop him from kidnapping them and having his way with them. And it shouldn’t stop you from savouring the results.
