Orangetree

Jason Nelson, the former singer of MU330, has released Fixing Stupid, the first album by his new band Orangetree. Orangetree has been hailed as the next big ska-punk band from the American Midwest, following in the footsteps of Mustard Plug and the Suicide Machines. The songs on Fixing Stupid are catchy and energetic, but they’re basically just simple pop-punk ditties with horns thrown on top. Nelson’s whiny vocals get irritating after the first song, and his nonsensical, sappy lyrics certainly don’t help. Fixing Stupid isn’t all bad. The song “Shaker” is the band’s attempt at swing and they pull it off quite well. If you ignore the repetitive pop-punk, Orangetree is very upbeat, but I would enjoy this band a lot more in a live setting. They certainly are not lacking energy, and some of their songs, like “Wally’s Revival” with its catchy chorus, stick in your head whether you want them to or not. Orangetree will be appealing to fans of Buck-O-Nine’s poppier songs or MU330 die-hards, but this album would be better off next to the latest Blink 182 album than in the ska section of a music store.