Album review by Joe Fortunato

Do you know that small flickering flame that burns consistently in the back of your head as life continues to fist you? Sometimes I'd wonder what music would be playing during those parts of the film version. What would that irritation sound like, musically? How could that numbness be played out audibly? This album is the answer to some of those questions. The chapters of life's disappointment and the rawness of life under your skin is finally accompanied by a sarcastic wit and bitter defeat that you can turn up and out on your home stereo.

What does "thank you and fuck you" sound like musically? You need listen no further than track 1, the song entitled "whores". Underneath the layers of shimmering guitar and throbbing bass lay the workings of grandiose middle finger to anyone we love to hate. The beauty betrays the sentiment - the whores have no clue they've been immortalized by the Black Water yet again. Good enough for us, because the whores who shake with one hand and stab with the other have an unofficial anthem of spite.

A hotspot for me is the track "numb"; it speaks volumes about the consistency of life's uncanny knack of kicking even harder when you least expect it, coming in beautiful packages, bearing toothy smiles and a warm camouflage. The numbness is the only defense against the bleakness. Amen. Burned and beaten to the last.

The entirety of this release is sequenced, in my opinion, in movements. The term "soundtrack for everyday existence" has been used to describe the Black Water in the past, and here again, is a release that seems to move like a film. A gritty, independent kick in balls of the established beer-swilling pop that infects this scene. If you are looking for a reprieve to the mindless three chord fumblings of the MTV bumblefucks, then look no further than this, a symphony of sarcasm. This is to music, what "the Shining" is to the horror genre : a benchmark. It has been raised, yet again.

--Joe Fortunato