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Doctor Casino, Orange Blossom Spaceship

by Waites Laseter
04/28/2006

Picking up a copy of Doctor Casino's Orange Blossom Spaceship is a brave action. The packaging is enough to put off all but the most courageous music fans, but Mother always said not to judge a book by its cover. The same can be said for Orange Blossom Spaceship, at least part of the time.

Doctor Casino, the musical brainchild of Addison Godel, has the same electric-keyboard and drum machine combo of Harry and the Potters, but Godel replaces the wizard shtick with lyrics more reminisce of the Athens lifestyle. "Summer in Athens" talks of boxes of wine, moldy walls and incoming freshman, while "Captain D's" reflects on booty calls in the "vacant lot behind Captain D's" and crawling home after a long night of drinking.

Orange Blossom Spaceship is like an old engine; when it's hitting on all cylinders, it's a great ride. "Not Falling for You," by far the best track on the album, showcases Godel's writing ability, conveying the complex emotions involved when you realize someone you once were attracted to isn't right for you, while "Startin' Fires," with it's trance-like clicks, samples and heavy bass could easily be a Krush Girls staple.

But like an old engine, when Orange Blossom Spaceship isn't hitting on all cylinders, the ride is far from smooth. Both "Crush Song" and "Whitney" feel like jumbles of left-over pieces of failed songs, while "Lonesome Road" sounds like a failed Tom Waits inspired-song; cheesy carnival sounds without the blues and soul to make it believable.

Doctor Casino's Orange Blossom Spaceship is an obvious first album. It's an over-thought and under-produced mess. Yet Godel's four years of work was not in vain; though Orange Blossom Spaceship is not a great album, it is a decent one, showing a lot of potential. Though the cover betrays, at least to a degree, the nature of the album, the gems are worth shifting through the rough.