The debut album shows the songwriter’s lock on raucous, daring arrangements commanded by lyrics that are both moving and muscular.
The album chronicles political upheaval and renewal with its darkly joyous title track, where “tri-tones sirens deprive us of sleep” while “chasing the Party of God through suburban streets”; and where the singer/poet/street caller asks when the sleeper cells are “Gonna raise hell down at the 7-11? / Or take out the subway station in Sheridan Square? / When’s the walls of Harvard or Disneyworld / Gonna yield to a dirty bomb — Goofy and Mickey / Just body parts on the landscape?” It also showcases Brewbaker’s commitment to serve as a mouthpiece for unsung heroism in songs that scavenge emotional and psychological frontiers like Sea of Cortez and Mary & Pete, which soulfully laments that it’s “hard to find a little love in the world / Life don’t put out like a chorus girl.”
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