A quick flick through “D” in my CD rack tells me that this is the Dropkick Murphy’s sixth album release (not including collections, live albums, singles/EPs etc.) and I have to say it’s a pretty darn good one – running at warp speed just about from start to finish. It sounds to me like they’ve taken the experimentation of “Blackout” and “Warrior’s Code” and applied it to the energy of “Sing Loud Sing Proud” and just done what the Murphy’s do best – create cracking good rock n’ roll songs with enough Celtic flavor that you know its there, but only enough that’s allowable in the Dropkick Murphy’s world of slam-it-down-your throat working class hymns.

By the way, I’m kidding about having a “D” section in my CD rack, I’m nowhere near that organized, but my Dropkick Murphy’s collection is all together and safely on one of the top shelves (out of reach of my baby daughter), so it was easy to count for the purposes of this review. Only special bands like this one get a place on the top shelves where they avoid the very real dangers of being chewed and soaked in dribble on a daily basis.

The album launches with the sound of a school bell and playground noises before cranking into “Famous for Nothing”, a song about the (mis)adventures of youth. The song is a real solid example of the Murphy’s with tight, heavy rhythm and a dirty guitar over the top that almost has a bit of a “surf” sound to it before adding in first a mandolin and then pipes as it builds into a breakneck, anthemic crescendo.

Next up is a number about lost loved ones called “God Willing” which, if anything, increases the pace of the opening track. It really cranks through and has a killer, catchy chorus.

“The State of Massachusetts” has some awesome banjo throughout it, and the song overall is real quality and one of my favorites after the first couple of listens. This despite the rather depressing subject of family neglect / child abuse and the vicious circle this introduces.

A couple of straight-ahead punk songs come up next in the form of “Tomorrow’s Industry” and “Echo’s on ‘A’ Street”, covering a working-class perspective on hard times and the support of family respectively.

“Vices and Virtues” is a fast-paced anthem about 4 dead brothers and the various ways they managed to die too young. Catch-cry of “Whiskey, war, suicide and guns”.

“Surrender” has some nice guitar work and is followed up by a re-working of Lannigan’s Ball with some new Boston-esque lyrics and guest appearances from The Pogues’ Spider Stacy and The Dubliner’s Ronnie Drew. Ronnie Drew’s voice is just gold – sets the song off brilliantly. I read a quote somewhere once, but buggared if I can find it now, that described Ronnie Drew’s voice as being able to “take the head off a pint of Guinness at 10 paces” or something to that effect and it’s spot on – Its so deep and rough and sends a shiver down your spine. Magic stuff…and great arrangement of the song overall I reckon with the mix of singers working well (almost a bit like the Murphy’s legendary version of Rocky Road to Dublin but with Spider and Ronnie adding their bits).

“I’ll Begin Again” is a flat-out punk track about prison life and as the CD booklet says “A mother’s love for a son…”

“Fairmount Hill” is another re-take of a traditional tune, and in this case “Spancill Hill” gets a pretty decent Murphy’s working over. It’s the only slower tune on the album. “Loyal to No One” comes after this which rekindles the album’s pace and paints a picture of a stubborn, self-reliant asshole who will suffer a lonely death. Some cheeky little banjo in the middle adds another element to the song. “Shattered” comes after this one blasting the bullshit out of every aspect of society, and next is “Rude Awakenings”, a rather comical view of the morning-after a one night stand with disappointment all around.

The third traditional song is up next, “Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya”, a great version of the anti-war song accurately portraying the shell of a person that returns from such unfortunate adventures. And the album closes out with “Never Forget” which features Scruffy Wallace’s pipes in their most prominent position (although they are used in a complementary role very well throughout the album). The track is about love and family values and despite the uplifting pipes I found it a little bit of a weak ending to an otherwise really solid album.

Overall an album that sees the Murphy’s focusing back on their roots a bit more and it works really well. Existing fans will love it and if you’re new to the Murphy’s this is definitely a good listen, however if you prefer the folk end of the folk-punk genre “Blackout” would be a better bet.

2007

Review: Alex Dean

Dropkick Murphys loom so large over the current Irish Punk/Celtic scene that it’s hard to give an objective opinion about their new album. Their importance cannot be understated. Indeed Dropkick Murphys are a major reason why many bands on this website exist; in fact, it’s a primary reason why the website itself exists.

Added to this somewhat grandiose opening statement is the fact that, while the band has been huge in it’s beloved Boston for years, recent national exposure via “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” in Martin Scorsese’s Academy Award winning film The Departed is now making them huge nationwide. If one looks at record sales, one can determine that there exists something of an event surrounding this latest offering. However, when a genre-defining band releases a new album in this sort of Boston/Celtic Zeitgeist, there also exists a weird type of conundrum; there will be longtime fans who offer nothing but support, there will be detractors that cry “sell-outs”, there will be an embarrassing contingent of fleeting fans in Bruins jerseys who hop aboard all the latest trends, and then there will just be the regular Joe Bud Light who likes the band for whatever reason, with however much fervor they so choose. And that’s simply the way of the music fan. And somewhere in the middle lies the truth about this record.

American Heritage defines “evolution” as 1. A gradual process in which something changes into a different and usually more complex or better form. 2. The process of developing. Dropkick Murphys have, for better or worse, been evolutionary since their inception. It took me a second to realize this, but unless you are Cock Sparrer or AC/DC, the natural process is to evolve, if only in a small way, to satisfy themselves as artists, and to make the type of music they have the technical chops to make. Bands evolve. This is nothing new, but rather a well-worn cliché with the rock’n’roll canon.

In truth, bassist Ken Casey has said that the band now is pretty much how he envisioned it from the beginning, he simply didn’t have the resources to put together all of the instrumentation he wanted, in 1996 in the fledgling Boston punk/oi! scene. Fair enough. And while I’m often times nostalgic for the Do or Die 4 piece that played basement shows in Chicago, I respect this band, and put them on s pedestal above many classic oi!/punk bands who also evolved. Why? Because unlike groups like your SSD’s or Stiff Little Fingers (to use two of DKM’s longtime influences) this band’s evolution did not include making music that I’d consider far less than stellar.

The results of The Meanest of Times? I’ve had the chance to listen to the album many times over, and I can safely say that it’s my favorite Dropkick Murphys record since Sing Loud, Sing Proud. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed each post-Sing Loud album on it’s own merits, and I feel they all have their strong suits, but I think The Meanest of Times is the most solid of the three. The most cohesive and complete.

The album kicks off with one of my favorite tracks, Famous For Nothing, which details the woes, but also the good times, of growing up in Catholic schools. The track has a nice driving rock’n’roll punch to it, and a catchy-as-hell pre-chorus and chorus.

From here, the album runs the gamut of styles that have influenced Dropkick Murphys since day one: punk, Irish, hardcore, traditional and others in-between.

One of the things that really drags down modern day oi!/streetpunk is badly clichéd lyrics. One only needs to look at something like The State of Massachusetts to see that lyrics need not always be about the same tired barroom crap. Probably the most poignant on the record, dealing with drug problems, and the reality a lot of kids grow/grew up with, it really does show how the band have matured.

To be honest, a few of the past choices of traditionals have left me a bit under whelmed, but the inclusion of Flannigan’s Ball (a reworking of an old Irish tune Lannigan’s Ball) works as well as any they’ve ever done. Why? Something about the song seems dark to me, and hearing Dubliner Ronnie Drew’s vocals, mixed with Pogues whistler Spider Stacey, mixed with Ken and Al really works. Ronnie Drew has an amazing voice, and hearing him speed it up for this tune was really something, and for lack of a better word, “cool.”

Shattered is a nice, simple, straight-ahead hardcore offering, sans any Irish flavor, that shows the Dropkick Murphys have lost none of their Boston Hardcore roots, and showcases drummer Matt Kelly at his best. The inclusion of such songs is a treat for me, and reminds me of the old days. I, for one, appreciate songs on the album like this one and I’ll Begin Again the break away from the full-on Irish flavor that the majority possesses.

An example of how the full-on Irish flavor works amazingly is Rude Awakenings, which sounds like it could well be a hundred’s years old Irish tune. It truly sounds like something The Dubliners could have recorded. The banjo playing is outstanding, the pipes compliment the tune to a tee, and the age-old subject matter of getting drunk, and getting into misadventures with the opposite sex, is a can’t miss – passed down from generations of drunken, horny Micks to Ken Casey’s pen.

The album closes on a universal theme for a band that has always remained loyal to it’s city, it’s friends and it’s family. Never Forget, singing the virtues of such loyalties, succinctly wraps up an album that, indeed, seems to preach these very virtues from start to finish.

Certainly this band has evolved, but the core beliefs that started the band remain intact, and the music never suffers. The band may grow, and the fan base as well (and I can’t think of a more deserving group of folks for this to happen to) but the values remain the same. To reiterate, “evolution: A gradual process in which something changes into a different and usually more complex or better form.”

More complex. And better.

2007

Review: Sean Holland