With the mess in Iraq not going away any time soon, and the economy in the crapper, who can blame Tod A for wanting to get the hell out of America? Actually, make that past tense; as much as this album’s Bush-bashing kickoff track — the jungle-swing gem “Borneo” — finds the singer announcing “I’m getting out of here,” the reality is he abandoned New York back in 2005. An extended soul-searching adventure through India, Pakistan, Turkey, and lands beyond eventually led to The Golden Hour.
The project started with a laptop, a microphone, and the former Cop Shoot Cop industrial-agitator jamming with foreign musicians who wouldn’t know Firewater from Freakwater or Firehose. Along the way, seriously exotic magic was created. An indie-rock answer to M.I.A.’s much-ballyhooed Kala, this culture-clash travelogue proves, yet again, that Tod A is one of the most criminally underappreciated artists in the American underground. Whether bum-rushing the dance floor Bollywood-style in the microchip-tinted banger “Bhangra Bros.”, or dragging calypsified ska through the Middle East on “Already Gone”, the alt-music veteran delivers his finest hour.
So if you thought Tod A ran out of things to say four years ago — Firewater’s last outing, 2004′s Songs We Should Have Written, was all covers — get ready for this thrillingly exotic resurrection. One spin through, and you’ll be convinced it’s time to make sure your passport is up to date, whether you live in America or not.
