Flogging Molly
Float
Side One Dummy
By Robert Young
Flogging Molly’s new album Float is more stellar Ameri-Irish punk rock from the LA octet. This is the group’s fourth studio album since 2000’s Swagger and proves to be more musically bi-polar and pop-fueled than the band’s preceding efforts. Songs like “Requiem for a Dying Song“ and “On the Back of a Broken Dream,” despite lyrical content, are so pepped up that the listener can’t help but be transported to a sunny day on the coast of Ireland. And just when you’re saying to yourself, “Wow, the melodies on this new Flogging Molly album have me shitting more rainbows than an apple pie stuffed with Prozac,” here comes lead singer Dave King and his legendary snarling, down tempo croon to knock you on your ass. When songs like “Us of Lesser Gods” and “The Story So Far” start creeping through the speakers make sure there is a box of tissue and an ample supply of Guinness nearby. Just grab your best drinking mate, put arms around shoulders, swish cups through the air, sway and repeat.
Flogging Molly has their formula down and it’s more of the same on Float albeit with a bit more of a pop twist. Hold on Flogging Molly fans before you get ready to kick my arse because I didn’t mean “pop” in a bad way. The attenuation of heavy drum, bass and slashing electric guitar riffs make for a softer feeling album where King’s vocals come through in clarity and prominence. Some songs are an exception to this new style but overall the album’s mood feels pop in that it is extremely light at times -and somber at others. King’s lyrics are stellar, deep and confrontational, as usual, and with the sometimes omission of the electric guitar, they seem to come out more on Float. In summation, the highs are high and the lows are low with few in betweens on this latest solid effort from LA’s favorite Irish.
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