Dropkick Murphys have long run the risk of becoming a caricature of themselves. Like their native Boston and St. Patrick’s Day (QRO live review of Dropkick Murphys in Boston on St. Patrick’s Day), Dropkick Murphys have an undisputedly authentic Irish-American working class nature – that can be as overdone as any stereotype out there. 11 Short Stories of Pain & Glory plays to both sides of this equation.
The new album is very definitively a new Dropkick Murphys album – bordering on too much so. “Blood” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone” are exactly what you’re expecting them to be from the band, as is the ode to their hardscrabble youth, “Sandlot”. Of course the Dropkick Murphys have a song about the Boston Marathon bombing, “4-15-13” – that’s about as expected as the movie of it having Mark Wahlberg. The attitude of their rollicking anthems can sometimes be overdone (“First Class Loser”), but also quite enjoyable (“I Had a Hat”).
Dropkick Murphys might be caught in something of a box by their music, as you can bet that none of their fans want them to expand into electronics or some such nonsense – and they’d be right. Even if they’re a bit of an anachronism at this point, like Boston Irish mob movies (as pointed out when The Simpsons went to Boston), they’re still Stories worth singing.
