The first thing I noticed when i first cracked open the plastic, tossed the CD in my CD player and let the first strains come to my ears was 3 things: 1) that there is no electric guitar (except for one of the songs) only an acoustic. 2) The singer (Bojan Petroviæ)’s voice is different. It’s the voice of a Serbian who just learned English a week ago and to supplement the accent, he had an Irish language instructor. 3) the band play with such energy that the absence of a crashing electric guitar is not noticed. For many songs, Bojan’s voice accompanies the acoustic for the first part of the song and then the rest of the band joins in. Bojan’s somber Serbian accent renders track with needed severity in some cases and an almost humorous irony. At the risk of being horribly incorrect, I think they sound like Siobhan, acoustic but still punky. There are only a few tracks that stand out which make the price a little too much even if (like me) you gotta have’em. We start off with a nice upbeat little track called McGee’s Daughter. The whistle/fiddle/drums combined with that ever prominent voice provide a sharp, fun melody. The next track, Why, asks the eternal question in a sad tone which doesn’t make it any less of a great track. We skip ahead to Patrick Malone, a dark ambiance around a rousing song about a man and his problems with the drink. We skip again, to my favorite track on the album, Stout. The acoustic guitar and fiddle anchor a rollicking song with an awesome chorus. “Fuckin’ stout, fuckin’ stout. I’ll drink all night, and I don’t care if it’s wrong or right, stout, fuckin’ stout, I drink all night and then in the morning I’m so fuckin’ drunk!”, awesome track. The next track of note is a reworking of the classic, Black & Tans. The lyrics bring a smile to your lips as Bojan slurs tries to pronounce the complicated phrases and the jig-like energy takes some of the usual sadness which so often surrounds other covers of this track. Right behind it comes Skibereen, the song starts lament-like as Bojan’s somber Serbian accent renders the sadness of having to leave Ireland until the guitar, fiddle and banjo join in to provide a backbeat. All in all, while I love this CD, there probably aren’t that many others who would shell out the copious amounts of cash(almost $30!) required to obtain this unless they really like it. I wouldn’t recommend it if you don’t already love ’em.

2008

Review: Bigmac