Dropkick Murphys 'The Meanest Of Times' album

Dropkick Murphys will release The Meanest Of Times September 18th on their own label, Born & Bred Records in association with Warner Music Group's Independent Label Group. Dropkick Murphys come out swinging with their 6th studio album The Meanest Of Times a collection of tales about family, loyalty and remembering where you came from. The Meanest Of Times contains all the best elements of the DKM sound: a complex distillation of classic punk rock, Celtic folk and American rock'n'roll, this album puts the band's diversity, intensity and sincerity on full display.

The album features guest appearances by Spider Stacey of The Pogues and Ronnie Drew of The Dubliners. TMoT was recorded at The Outpost in Stoughton, MA and produced by the Dropkick Murphys. The guest vocals were recorded at Westland Studios in Dublin by Dave Slevin.

The last Dropkick Murphys studio album The Warrior's Code has shipped over 200,000 copies and the band has a catalogue history of more than 1.5 million in sales in the US. Consolidating this strong sales history with digital single sales of 250,000 for the track "I'm Shipping Up To Boston" which was the title track in Martin Scorsese's Academy Award winning film "The Departed". Speaking of "The Departed", Cinemax and HBO will be running a feature on the band in August and September respectively to coincide with the movie's TV premiere.

press quotes
"This year's most exciting movie song? Boston-based punk band Dropkick Murphys' "I'm Shipping Up to Boston". The song has an intensity that embodies the guts and energy of the movie and is another in a long list of music that the director-a renowned music fan-has brilliantly utilized in his work. He's made impeccable choices: the Ronettes in Mean Streets, Bernard Herrmann's Taxi Driver score, the Cavalleria Rusticana Intermezzo in Raging Bull, the Rolling Stones in GoodFellas, Mickey and Sylvia's "Love Is Strange" in Casino, just to name a few. The Dropkick Murphys number, was inspired by an unpublished Woody Guthrie lyric and has a hard-core bagpipe stomp that puts other bands who consider themselves punk rock to shame."
Lisa Robinson, Vanity Fair 03/07

"There's a real case to be made for bands like the Dropkick Murphys, bands that keep their focus narrow and do amazing work not in spite of their strict aesthetics but because of them. The Murphys are great because they embrace their chosen path so joyously and wholeheartedly and because they know how to write songs with big hooks, the sort of things that actually make us want to want to scream along. Critics like me have a really easy time writing this stuff off, repping instead for people who try to tell us deep universal truths or who make a big point of leaping genre boundaries and changing their whole shit up on every album. But the Murphys' blare can be as sweeping and universal as anything else if we approach it on its own terms. If it takes a movie like The Departed to remind us of something great that's been under our noses all this time, that's a shame, but I'm glad somebody's doing it."
- Tom Breihan, Village Voice 10/13/06

"Despite gaining mainstream exposure on last year's soundtrack to The Departed, Dropkick Murphys haven't softened their rough edges: The band's sixth album is a massive blast of exhalted noise via shouted, sore-throat choruses and brain crushing beats (along with a hint of bagpipes). But The Meanest of Times moves beyond just connecting the dots between working-class punk and ancient Celtic ditties, with surprisingly thoughtful songs that explore lives shaped by drunken violence and Catholicism--the brute fury of 'Shattered' alone provides reason enough to listen up."
--Jon Young, SPIN, October 2007 (four-star review)

"Fiddles, mandolins, tin whistles and bagpipes continue to fight side-by-side with frenzied electric guitar, breathless bass lines, and hard hitting drums in the battle for punk domination. Whiskey, women, and wistfulness remain on the lyrical menu as does the band's familiar theme of family. In that regard, the devastating 'The State of Massachusetts' perfectly encapsulates the demons of parents whose children are placed in state care. Angry, joyous, danceable, gritty and Hub-specific, Meanest is everything you want in a Murphys record and a great inauguration for the band's newly minted indie label, Born & Bred Records."
--Sarah Rodman, BOSTON GLOBE, September 25, 2007

"These seven Massachusetts guys know how to make even dire moments sound like a hot party. On their sixth album, fiddle, mandolin and other Gaelic accouterments adorn rave-ups like 'The State of Massachusetts,' reminding you they're a punk band with a Celtic twist. They're also songwriters--and good ones, too, preserving their party-boy reputation while turning out giant, soulful choruses on songs both manicured and memorable: Dig tunefully sotted jams like 'Tomorrow's Industry'..."
--Christian Hoard, ROLLING STONE, September 20, 2007

"Nobody does Celtic punk better than the Dropkicks. And the Dropkicks have never done it better. Always competent at composing gutter poetry, hardcore jigs and smart, simple political tirades, this sixth full-length go-around ups both the folkie-Irish banjo picking and the breakneck singalongs. From the 'If I Should Fall From Grace With God'-inspired opener 'Famous For Nothing' to the bagpipe-fired 'Never Forget' there's nary a filler tune."
--Jed Gottleib, BOSTON HERALD, September 18, 2007 (A- CD review)

"Dropkick Murphys play gruff punk with some rowdy Irish roots and offer no mercy for posers or phonies."
--Jon Pareles, NEW YORK TIMES, September 14, 2007

"On The Meanest of Times they're in fine fettle and fighting trim...For the recording of 'Flanningan's Ball' a hard-charging many versed litany of drinking and dancing and donnybrooks, the band traveled to Ireland to record with the Pogues' Spider Stacey (whose voice is gravelly) and The Dubliners' legendary Ronnie Drew (whose voice sounds like gravel being pureed in a blender). The song is a stunner, which Casey and Barr trading verses with these two titans of Irish music, three generations demolishing Dorchester's Florian Hall from across the broad Atlantic."
--Mike Millard, BOSTON PHOENIX, September 7, 2007 (cover story)

"Given that nothing seems to be broken--hell Martin Scorsese, who used their 'I'm Shipping Up To Boston' in his Oscar-winning The Departed, now name checks them in interviews--the Dropkick Murphys don't fuck with a good thing on The Meanest of Times. Famous for blending East Coast hardcore with whiskey-scorched Celtic folk, Beantown's favorite sons predictably make sure both are well represented...Proving the Murphys haven't forgotten their roots, the Gang Green-strength blast of hardcore that is 'Shattered' gives old-schoolers a reason to risk what's left of their teeth in the mosh pit. If anything has changed this time out, it's that the Murphys' Celtic songs sound more traditional than ever. The banjo-and-bagpipes-powered 'Fairmount Hill' practically bleeds unpasteurized Guinness, while the reeling '(F)lannigan's Ball' sounds like Saturday night in Dublin's suds-soaked Temple Bar district. It's all potent enough to make you reconsider your list of things to do before you die. If catching the Murphys in Boston for one of their infamous St. Patrick's Day shows isn't already a Top 10 mission, The Meanest of Times will convince you it's time to reprioritize."
--Mike Usinger, ALTERNATIVE PRESS, October 2007 (4 out of 5 stars)

"These Boston punk-folk-sters owe a large musical debt to Irish punk-folksters the Pogues (payable, probably in Guinness). But if that's not a problem for Pogues singer Spider Stacy, who guests on '(F)lannigan's Ball,' then it's fine by us, given the gloriously raucous, hook-heavy nature of that track. Indeed, the bulk of the album consists of frenetic toe-tappers, such as the opener, 'Famous for Nothing,' which also showcases bagpiper Scruffy Wallace. And how can you dislike a band that has a bagpiper named Scruffy?"
--Clark Collis, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, September 21, 2007.

"Beantown's favorite Celtic-punk rockers are back with their sixth studio album, "The Meanest of Times," celebrating family, loyalty and remembering where you came from. The band's in fine form, continuing its decade-old tradition of telling plain-speaking stories that don't need interpretation in rousing song.
--Maxine Shen, NEW YORK POST, September 18, 2007

Do you also would like to share your opinion? If so, please register or login here.

Tags

Details

Popular Songs

New Songs

Dropkick Murphys - The Meanest Of Times