It took me several days to figure out how to enjoy my latest album purchase, Hi-Fi Revival from the Orange County Supertones. The key, I finally realized, is to play it loudly. From the night I bought it and played it softly to avoid bothering my wife, to the days I played it in my office at work quietly to avoid disturbing my coworkers, I was getting an inaccurate picture of the album. In fact, I was disappointed. Then I decided to forgo my usual diet of NPR during my work commute one day, and cranked up the CD player in the truck. Finally, this was what I had somehow known this album was capable of. The charging guitars and blaring horn section needed to have some volume, and given enough room to rock my world, they did.

I've been a fan of the Supertones since their second album, The Supertones Strike Back. Like the movie series from which the title was derived, Strike Back is better than the original, The Adventures of the OC Supertones, and remained the Supertones' best work through the next two releases, Chase the Sun and Loud and Clear. Unlike Star Wars, however, the Supertones have managed to recover, and their fifth effort, Hi-Fi Revival, is now my favorite Supertones album.

Since they started as a ska band, and ska is out of style right now, they've faced the same dilemma that bands like Mighty Mighty Bosstones and No Doubt have faced - stick with ska (like the Bosstones did) and drift out past the margins, or lose the horns completely (like No Doubt did) and do something completely different. That struggle seems evident to me on their previous two albums, but with Hi-Fi Revival they seem to have finally found a third way that works. The horn section that screamed "ska" in their early albums now seems to be more like Tower of Power or Sly and the Family Stone. They haven't left ska behind completly, but they've managed to package it in a thoroughly modern and completely enjoyable presentation by combining classic soul and modern rock.

Lyrically, the band has mellowed. While I enjoy their Reformed approach to Christian theology, they've shown that they can be a little too preachy to completely enjoy at times, but not on this album. From the opening braggadacio of Superfly ("We came with jams equipped, I brought some rhymes to spit, beats to move your feet and hips...") to the anti-cynicism of Birth Of Uncool ("I don't understand, it's so in to be disaffected. They only like the cynical bands, the bubble gum and the disconnected..."), the lyrics are informed by a deep understanding of theology without trying to teach it directly through the songs. Even Pauline-style songs like Fire ("Here is a question, Who are the Pure? What is the thing you're livin' for?") are restrained and balanced by party songs like Go Go Go ("I don't wanna see the dance floor vacant, but all my people who are for the movement, front and center we can smash it up right now...").