Album Review: Dropkick Murphys, Turn Up That Dial

Dropkick Murphys’ 11th opus is a love letter to the restorative powers of music. Full of wit, warmth and their trademark raucous vocals, it taps smartly into their early days spent rocking out to The Clash and Sham 69. Make no mistake: Turn Up That Dial is a powerful riposte to those who accused these barroom heroes of selling out. In short, Ken Casey and his fellow Dropkicks still very much mean it, maaaaan.

They open with a roar – what else? – on the title-track, which of course makes total sense. The way I hear it, the band haven’t sounded this fired up since ‘07’s The Meanest Of Times. And boy do these musicians know how to rock, with Tim Brennan again displaying his impressive versatility. ‘L-EE-B-O-Y’ and ‘Middle Finger’ raise the tempo while deliberately lowering the tone. And ‘Mick Jones Nicked My Pudding’ is a fun salvo of head rattling no-frills oi! punk. Elsewhere, ‘Chosen Few’ takes aim at Trump, Covid and the strife in their native States, with excellent results.

Boasting more knockout hooks than their hero “Irish” Micky Ward, Turn Up The Dial is a speaker-shaking return to form for Dropkick Murphys. They’re still singing it loud and proud.

Out now.