Music
20 Mar 01

Sing Loud, Sing Proud!

Sometimes it's hard to be Irish, and this is one of them. Imagine, if you must, an amalgam of Sham 69 without the songs; The Wolfe Tones minus the voices; Ding Dong Denny O'Reilly without the wit; the worst thrash metal band you've ever heard; the infantile macho posturing of American wrestling and The Saw Doctors at their shoutiest - and you've taken just one small step to comprehending the atrocity they call Dropkick Murphys.

Opening with a Nuremburg-style crowd, martial drums and bagpipes, they quickly deliver "their proud refrain" to 'Boston'. (Boston will be forever grateful, I'm sure). Then follows the manic thrash of 'Fionn MacCumhall' which will bring tears to your eyes, of laughter, mostly.

We then get the union-rousing 'Which Side Are You On?' before a whistle heralds a version of 'The Rocky Road To Dublin' whose only useful function is as an advance warning of the mutilation of 'The Irish Rover' that awaits anyone who survives as far as track 15. 'The Fortunes Of War' opens with a sub-Jimi burst of the US anthem before it too turns into a right shambles.

'Heroes From Our Past' and 'The New American Way' nearly work because they ease off the throttle and bring some light and shade to their otherwise relentless childish bluster, and when Shane MacGowan turns up on 'Good Rats' you get hints at what this album might have been with the introduction of even a little intelligence.

Dropkick Murphys represent an Ireland that only exists in the USA, and even then only in the sad minds of pseudo-patriots who would probably be hard pushed to find Ireland on a map.

Must be a contender for funniest album of the year.