Paul Wallfisch (piano, organ); Tamir Muskat (drums, percussion).

Additional personnel includes: Oren Bloedow (sitar); Ori Kaplan (alto saxophone); George Javori (drums).

Personnel: Danny Blume (slide guitar); Oren Bloedow (sitar); Hahn Rowe (violin); Ori Kaplan (alto saxophone); Tim Otto (tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone); Paul Wallfisch (piano, organ); George Javori (drums).

Audio Mixers: Jamey Staub; Sylvia Massy.

Recording information: Brooklyn, NY.

New York-based rockers Firewater have always infused their songs with a little extra wit, and a little ethnic flavoring, to keep them floating above the countless other bands working the indie territory. This third album finds the band in a more straight-ahead rock mode, with guitar riffs galore and dour, dystopian lyrics that both criticize and celebrate urban nihilism. Tod A.'s voice is snidely disaffected, but when he busts out a chorus, he reveals the real passion underneath the protective sneer. "Woke Up Down" and the title track are anthems for adult punks everywhere.

Psychopharmacology contains the requisite disgruntlement of a Firewater album, and all of angst-ridden underpinnings of testosterone-laced pop. It's impassioned on subjects like the country's increasing reliance on Prozac and related substances ("Psychopharmacology"), and emotionally spiralling on that of establishment ("Woke Up Down"). But it's on songs like "7th Avenue Static," which contains the line "I'm a raging success as a failure" and sounds almost like a slow Pogues tune, and "The Man With the Blurry Face," which describes the criminal proportions anonymity can reach, that best demonstrate Firewater's ability to channel their demons to transcendant effect. Frontman Tod A is joined by Elysian Fields' Jennifer Charles for a flagrant but endearing duet on "Bad, Bad World," and the band is joined on various tracks by a cast of characters that include downtown saxophonist Ori Kaplan and sitar player Oren Bloedow. ~ Travis Drageset