Posted on: December 7, 2010 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

The mixture of Busted and Rancid makes the opening of Orange’s disc interesting to say the least. Pop-punk mixes with the traditional Epitaph sound to make something that has a few shreds of musical credibility mixed in with the required punk rawk cred. Simply wanting to go and use brain-dead rhymes tied with the snotty faux-British accent of Tim Armstrong may be enough to make tracks that have a catchy beginning, but at least on the first few tracks of “Welcome To The World Of…Orange” there is little down to make sure that listeners stick around.

The disc’s first real hit comes with “No Rest For The Weekend”, a disaffected vocal-heavy track that moves away ever so slightly from the rigid, Rancid-influenced framework that hamstrung the early section of the disc. Using a simplistic progression for the arrangement of “Affirmation Song”, Orange keeps individuals listening in with a strong vocal harmony that meshes in near-perfectly with the guitar work. Moving dangerously close to the cheesy lyrics of the F-Ups with “Ghetto-Blasta”, Orange only save themselves from that resigned fate with a Matt Freeman-like bass line and a healthy dollop of 77 UK punk. The band finds themselves in hard times during the beginning of “Never Too late”, which has a stilted early-track delivery that is smartly rectified and conformed into the general sound of the rest of the disc. Interestingly included during “Never Too Late” is a guitar line that really brings individuals back to the days of grunge, which is something small that really keeps the disc fresh in the later game. The ultimate track “Orange” is a stutter-step, especially disappointing considering the amount of evolution that one notes of Orange during this disc.

“How Come Nothing Rhymes With orange”, the most-repeated lyric in the track, is delivered in a dead-pan way, while the inclusion of clapping towards the end of the track really does not shuffling things up enough to honestly save the track. “Welcome To The World Of Orange” has two hidden tracks; a “teaser” that describes apparently a main character to the second disc, and a much-more solid acoustic version of “Affirmation Song”. Orange comes through with more hits than misses with this album, and one will only wonder which direction they will go for their next album. The band has the musical chops, but what is left to be seen is whether they can continue to make interesting music without falling into a rut.

Top Tracks: Affirmation Song (acoustic), No Rest For The Weekend

Rating: 5.8/10

Orange – Welcome To The World Of Orange / 2005 Hellcat / 11 Tracks / http://www.orange-band.com / http://www.hell-cat.com / Reviewed 01 September 2005

Leave a Comment