Altsounds - Flogging Molly

The seven piece 'Irish American Celtic Punk' band have been around for nearly twelve years now, thats pretty much half my life time. Somehow they still manage to conjure up this new single and have it slap in your face with oodles of quality. You can't help but picture a cozy traditional pub playing this tune and maybe a live band playing in the corner to the bearded residents. One of those "local" pubs.

The track gradually builds with an acoustic guitar melody alongside Dave King delivering lyrics about drinking, followed by an extremely catchy "Don't sink the boat, that you built, you've built to keep afloat". By introducing each instrument subtly into the track it creates a warm gentle approach to songwriting. Kind of soothes the ears and eases you into the final build up. Bob Smidt uses the banjo to fuse everything together. He manages to leave just enough to sit outside the track and still be heard. At around 1min30 it all starts kicking off, the basic thump of the bass drum played along the bass line adds another warm texture. The climax is also used as a building block for the big finale. Some deep harmonies are used over "I'm a ripe old age" kind of reminiscent of Maynard James Keenan. The basic drum beat kicks in and all the layers are moulded together into a mass of mandolin, banjo & bass.

Good first impressions are an extremely hard hurdle to accomplish when creating music, you have to get the listener to not only like it, but listen again and again. This is definitely one of those tunes that stick in your head like pritt stick.

If you haven't already checked out the video for this track then get to it right away, it features some incredible animation and compliment the track so well.