New Album from Three Weeks Ago: Drunken Lullabies by Flogging Molly

Happy belated St. Paddy’s day! I trust that all of you celebrated the way St. Patrick would have wanted you to, by going to church and converting to Catholicism! Oh you didn’t? Well then I am going to assume that you fall into one of the three categories that St. Paddy’s divides people into; people who pretend to be Irish and use it as an excuse to drink uncontrollably, people who are actually Irish and use it to celebrate their heritage (a process that involves drinking for many of them), or people who just don’t care.

I sort of fall into the first category; I really wish I was Irish, though I don’t pretend to be. This desire comes from my background or rather, the lack thereof. I don’t know anything about my family history; I don’t have a grandma who cooks me specialty foods like pirogues, gyros, or borsch. I wish I had something special to celebrate. I think it is this desire that makes me love bands like Flogging Molly.

I am a HUGE sucker for Celtic punk. Something about the banjo and pipes makes me go completely nuts. I first discovered my love like most Celtic punk fans my age, I saw the movie The Departed. In case you have been living under a rock, that movie was fantastic and featured the Dropkick Murphys’ Shipping Up to Boston. The song completely blew my mind; it made me want to go out and kick some ass.  I NEEDED to get my hands on more. At the time I wasn’t the huge fan of exploring new music as I am now, so I listened to another song by them, decided I didn’t like it, and proceeded to ignore the Dropkick Murphys. If I could, I would go back in time and punch myself in the face (I get that feeling a lot and live in perpetual fear of receiving a punch in the face from future me). Fast forward to several weeks ago, I was listening to Pandora.com when Flogging Molly came on. I completely freaked out; I had finally found what I had been searching for! So I instantly bought Drunken Lullabies.

Drunken Lullabies definitely scratched my Celtic Punk itch. It sounds exactly like I wanted it to and gives me the exact feelings I wanted it to. As you might expect it is filled with what I would call “stereotypically Irish sounds”, you know, plenty of Irish accents, fiddle, banjo, some sort of bagpipe, accordion, and a flute that sounds like it came straight out of the Shire. These sounds are injected with a healthy dose of electric guitar and drums. I was shocked however to find that the music was actually pretty good; I was expecting it to be more generic and bland.

What I wasn’t expecting  was such a complete album. Though many of the songs sound similar, the similarity appears to be attributed more to the sound of the album/genre then to a lack of creativity, that is to say, none of the songs feel like they are throwaways. Each song is distinct, instantly recognizable, and enjoyable. They all rock out, but to differing degrees; Flogging Molly is not afraid of being soft spoken. My favorite track If I Ever Leave This World Alive, starts soft and slowly builds up to a kickass ending that is really uplifting; I feel really hopeful whenever I listen to it. Songs like Drunken Lullabies and Rebels of the Sacred Heart feel like they should only be listened to with a pint in hand (which I have since done and let me tell you, it was an extremely enjoyable experience). Plus, the album art is fantastic!

I would kill to be old, Irish, and in (what I assume to be) Boston like that.

I might have been prejudiced against modern punk derivatives (seeing as 99% of pop-punk makes me want to travel back in time and kill the Sex-Pistols terminator style), but I really was expecting this album to be garbage. It turns out that Drunken Lullabies is actually a really good listen. I think I will go out and give the Dropkick Muphys another try and check out The Pogues (a major influence of Flogging Molly). Heck maybe I will even give Panic at the Disco a shot….

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, man I crack myself up sometimes.