For those of you who have heard of the band Oranger, you’d probably expect what you’ve heard on the previous albums: enjoyable, pleasant, simple indie pop. Each album presented its own catchiness, and each album is quite easy to get into and be satisfied with.
This same satisfaction comes with their new release New Comes And Goes, but not without a touch of disappointment; a longing for something more than the usual Oranger. And it’s not that the album’s bad; it’s fun to listen to; it’s the Oranger that has defined themselves as a powerpop band with a twang that is substantially better than the plethora of mundane bands of the genre. The first song “Crooked in the Weird of the Catacombs” gets right into the excitement, and gets you right into a dancing feeling that is hard to deny. The album’s lyrics aren’t exactly poetry, but since when have indie pop lyrics ever snuck their way into angst-driven emotional teenager girls’ away messages on AIM?
As the album progresses, you start to think, “Hey…this song sounds a lot like the last one…and the one before that.” Most of the songs remain in the same key, and close to the same tempo, and it gets very, very repetitive. But then track 10 hits you, “Flying Pretend”, and your mood changes. The song begins with a lonely piano and gives off a sultry jazz sound. Perhaps one can look at the first 9 songs dwindling into this somber, simple yet dramatic mood-shifter on the album, but it definitely changes the tone of the album. The following tracks seem to pick up on this change in tone, and hastily get back to the same tempo as the other tracks, but now with a sense of maturity.
New Comes And Goes is a decent album, but doesn’t expand as much as one might hope for, and rather sticks to the basics: good, clean fun indie pop. I see Oranger with a band that has much more potential than that…perhaps 2006 calls for a new Oranger…one with less tang and more pulp. |