Spring Break
Flogging Molly floats by without much variety
Justin Pacheco
Issue date: 4/9/08 Section: Entertainment
04/09/08 - It's hard for me to think about Flogging Molly without thinking about the Dropkick Murphys. Both bands are Irish and damn proud of it. Both mix traditional Celtic songs with a more modern punk rock sound-either mixing the two styles together or just writing in each separately.
The bands are not exactly alike-no two bands really are-but they are similar enough for my friend to think he was listening to the Dropkick Murphys when, in fact, he was listening to Flogging Molly.
It's appropriate then, that Flogging Molly's newest album, Float, reminds me an awful lot of the Dropkick Murphys last album The Meanest of Times.
The Meanest of Times was an angry and melancholy record, with Ken Casey singing about the various wrongs of the world from dying soldiers in Iraq to "steroid fed Neanderthals" in Major League Baseball.
Float is an angry and melancholy record, with Dave King lamenting about a broken and beaten alcoholic on the title track, "Float," as well as a broken and beaten boxer on "Punch Drunk Grinning Soul."
What is it with boxers that inspires so much music? From the Dropkick Murphys borderline obsession with Massachusetts native, "Irish" Mickey Ward (going so far as to put him on the cover of "Warriors Code"), to the numerous rappers name dropping Ali and Joe Frasier, there seems to be all this love for boxers but nary a song about the great one, Wayne Gretzky.
After listening to Float numerous times, I'd still be hard-pressed to name the individual songs.
Often, I'd start the album, and it abruptly end without making much impact on me.
Maybe it's because Float is a short album, with just 11 songs that clock in at just less than 40 minutes total. But, more likely, I think it's because many of the songs are similar enough to be close to indistinguishable.
Some songs have parts that make them stand out from others, such as the rumbling bass line that opens "Man With No Country," but eventually, at some point, the song will revert to an often cluttered arrangement of acoustic guitar, bass, ukulele, accordions and whatever else they could fit in, it seems.
Still, this is an enjoyable record to listen to. It may not be any different from anything else that Flogging Molly has done, but they have their own sound and stick to it, which is commendable when sometimes change seems to be made for the sake of itself.
The bands are not exactly alike-no two bands really are-but they are similar enough for my friend to think he was listening to the Dropkick Murphys when, in fact, he was listening to Flogging Molly.
It's appropriate then, that Flogging Molly's newest album, Float, reminds me an awful lot of the Dropkick Murphys last album The Meanest of Times.
The Meanest of Times was an angry and melancholy record, with Ken Casey singing about the various wrongs of the world from dying soldiers in Iraq to "steroid fed Neanderthals" in Major League Baseball.
Float is an angry and melancholy record, with Dave King lamenting about a broken and beaten alcoholic on the title track, "Float," as well as a broken and beaten boxer on "Punch Drunk Grinning Soul."
What is it with boxers that inspires so much music? From the Dropkick Murphys borderline obsession with Massachusetts native, "Irish" Mickey Ward (going so far as to put him on the cover of "Warriors Code"), to the numerous rappers name dropping Ali and Joe Frasier, there seems to be all this love for boxers but nary a song about the great one, Wayne Gretzky.
After listening to Float numerous times, I'd still be hard-pressed to name the individual songs.
Often, I'd start the album, and it abruptly end without making much impact on me.
Maybe it's because Float is a short album, with just 11 songs that clock in at just less than 40 minutes total. But, more likely, I think it's because many of the songs are similar enough to be close to indistinguishable.
Some songs have parts that make them stand out from others, such as the rumbling bass line that opens "Man With No Country," but eventually, at some point, the song will revert to an often cluttered arrangement of acoustic guitar, bass, ukulele, accordions and whatever else they could fit in, it seems.
Still, this is an enjoyable record to listen to. It may not be any different from anything else that Flogging Molly has done, but they have their own sound and stick to it, which is commendable when sometimes change seems to be made for the sake of itself.
