Music Review Time: Panic and Flogging Molly

Mar 26, 2008 23:52

It's been a looooooooong time since I've done one of these, much less two, but eh, it's time:


Flogging Molly: Float

Track Listing:
1. Requiem for a Dying Song
2. (No More) Paddy’s Lament
3. Float
4. You Won’t Make a Fool Out of Me
5. Lightning Storm
6. Punch Drunk Grinning Soul
7. Us of Lesser Gods
8. Between a Man and a Woman
9. On the Back of a Broken Dream
10. Man With No Country
11. The Story So Far

“Requiem For a Dying Song” I loved from the start. Foot-thumping, fist-pumping political drinking song. Typical Flogging Molly, if a little slower than what we saw on Swagger. I think it sticks with the sound we heard on Within A Mile of Home with an easy chorus to sing along to, not something that always happens in Flogging Molly songs.

“(No More) Paddy’s Lament” threw me. At first I wondered if it was going to be a re-do of the heartbreaking Paddy’s Lamentation but it wasn’t, thank goodness, b/c that song is wonderful but rips my heart to bits. It is still dark and rough like Black Friday Rule. In fact, it would fit well with the songs off Swagger and Drunken Lullabies. I adore the music in this one. Hard and fast with the lyrics of the song. I love the breakdown from punk-Irish folk to the electric guitar to the fade back into traditional Irish folk to the punk-Irish folk again. Awesome song.

“Float” is slower-paced than the first two, which happened on Within A Mile.. as well. It’s a drinking song, but still holds wonderful craftsmanship in the song. It’s a song for a dark corner in an Irish pub, mulling over life as you stare into your drink, finger-tips tapping on the sticky wooden table.

“You Won’t Make A Fool Out of Me” picks the pace up again. Like “Requiem” it invites the crowd to sing along. It’s another foot-tapper and is perfect for yelling the lyrics out as you dance your own form of a jig.

“Lightning Storm” goes right into the music. A storm of fiddles and drums. Fast and rough. Love the lyrics in this one. The instruments in this really are amazing and with all the fury in the start it ends in silence. Highly recommended.

“Punch Drunk Grinning Soul” actually reminds me of the songs off the last Green Day album. I like the song, but it doesn’t move me or grab me like all the others. Still, a very good song.

“Us of Lesser Gods” starts with an acoustic guitar, a hand drum, and a banjo. I call it a walking song, a song I can see a group of soldiers (or often in my writing-mind elves) singing as they walk down the road. Love this song on so many levels. Good job now we'll never see our coasts again so reminds me of our favorite Gondolin boys. Also Highly Recommended.

“Between a Man and a Woman” foot-tapping music from the get-go in Flogging Molly’s trademark style. Love the fiddle work in this one.

“On the Back of a Broken Dream” is another one of my favorite songs on the album. Almost sounds like Sentimental Johnny in its musical style.

“Man With No Country” harsh and fast right from the start, dark and demanding like all of Flogging Molly’s “war” songs.

“The Story So Far” like all of Flogging Molly’s albums, it closes out slow. Like the last call in any pub, it’s slow-going and memory-full. A wavering song, melancholy in tone.

There’s not one song on the album I dislike. I highly recommend it, like I highly recommend all of Flogging Molly’s music. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, with its mixture of punk, rock, Irish folk, and Irish traditional music. The music and lyrics are, as always, insightful and exquisite. I love this band so much and cannot wait to see more from them. Their music always soothes me, or makes me dance, and always inspires.

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Panic At the Disco: Pretty. Odd.

Track Listing:

1. We’re So Starving
2. Nine in the Afternoon
3. She’s A Handsome Woman
4. Do You Know What I’m Seeing?
5. That Green Gentleman (Things Have Changed)
6. I Have Friends in Holy Spaces
7. Northern Downpour
8. When the Day Met the Night
9. Pas De Cheval
10. The Piano Knows Something I Don’t Know
11. Behind the sea
12. Folkin’ Around
13. She Had the World
14. From the Mountain in the Middle of the Cabins
15. Mad as Rabbits

From the onset of “We’re So Starving” you can tell this is a different Panic. This is a 60s throw-back. While “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out” is the party and screaming album, with a touch of Cabaret thrown in, this album is the Hair/Godspell sitting in the park playing a guitar phase of life. The boys are no longer just out of high school teens but are those sophomore-esque college kids who wear vintage Door’s T-shirts, put up Abbey Road posters on the wall and contemplate the meaning of life over faux-absinthe.

“Nine in the Afternoon” was the first single and I fully admit to adoring it. It’s lush and big, and reminds me of Alice in Wonderland’s “All in the Golden Afternoon” with a big brass band behind it. I can’t listen to the song without thinking of Lewis Carroll. It’s catchy and good for the anthem-sized crowds sing-alongs.

“She’s A Handsome Woman” threw-me a little on the outset. It’s trying too hard to be a song from folksy-70s rock. It made me think of my mom’s America and Cat Steven’s albums, or like a montage in NBC’s The 60s mini-series. I don’t like it, but I don’t hate it. I do like Brandon Urie’s vocals on the record, but the guitar riffs distract me as, I said, trying too hard and making me wonder where I’ve heard them before.

“Do You Know What I’m Seeing?” drew-me in with its beginning. Very lazy and hazy. I love the harmonica, I love when that instrument is used well in a song. I also feel the backbeat of the Fever.. album in this song. There is that showman-ship style you get from songs like The Best Part of Lying is..

“That Green Gentleman” was the second song I ever heard off this album and I loved it from first listen. Having played it a few times since then, the love is still there. I love the vocals and the music on the track. Again, it has hints of what was on Fever but married with the new sound. It’s really a bridge between the two for me.

“I Have Friends in Holy Spaces” as the stereotypical emo-song titles go, this is the only one on the album. The opening is very cute in its old-timey way. Typical and been done before, but then the boys switched it up and kept that sound for the whole song. Granted it’s barely a minute long, but still.

“Northern Downpour” is slow and heartfelt, an acoustic guitar and a voice opening. It reminds me of a Jump! Little Children or Something Corporate song, but I like it. I like the change in pace of the song as more and more instruments appear. Plus “you clicked your heels and wished for me” is one of my favorite lyrics. I adore Wizard of Oz references. It’s a song you’d expect from a college band and what I think people have to remember, is that for all their success, these guys are still very young. The eldest member, I think, was born in 1985 and all the others in 1986 and 1987. They’re still babies, and this is only their second album, and I still think a song like “Northern Downpour” is amazing for that reason alone.

“When the Day Met the Night” is a song I love for its pacing and performance. Again, I’m reminded of Lewis Carroll. It’s again like the big light rock ballads of the 1960s and early 1970s. I was really expecting a “Let the sun shine in!” line to be belted out. It’s like a perfectly warped package of musical nostalgia.

“Pas de Cheval” made me laugh with its “Easy Rider”/ Lynyrd Skynyrd wannabe opener. I just have this picture of a rodeo-style mock-u-music video in the spirit of the Foo Fighters.

“The Piano Knows Something I Don’t Know” opener again reminded me of a musical. It really does amaze me how their songs always make me go, “I could so see the music video for this song.” Once the song gets into it, there is a hint of There’s a Good Reasons Those Tables…. but this is also a hint of trying to be the opening to Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. The boys are still a long way from that, but they certainly do have the spirit to maybe put on a show approaching something like Freddy Mercury did.

“Behind the Sea” Ah, the musical clap. It can kill or make a song. In this case, with the Byrds-like sound, it’s different. It’s a different song, has a different lead singer. Alas, I don’t like it (and its attempts of be something of the late-era Beatles, which, people just need to stop b/c only the Beatles can really be the Beatles) and is therefore my least favorite song on the album. Leave the sounds of Yellow Submarine and All You Need is Love to the masters, boys.

“Folkin’ Around” Right, so I like country music, LOVE bluegrass, LOVE Irish Folk and ADORE fiddles. Therefore, “Folkin’ Around” is my favorite song on the album. That’s really all I can say. I love it. So much. I know the guys at Rolling Stone hate this song, but eh, I’m a sucker for a good fiddle and a good harmonica. And for boys labeled and pigeon-holed as Emo, this is a very brave song to attempt, even as a joke.

“She Had the World” My third favorite song on the album. A vague music-box like sound.

“From A Mountain in the Middle of the Cabins” interesting title, interesting song. It’s opens like the theme-music for an afterschool special. Old-timey piano sound. I’m still unsure about this song, it will take a few listens to settle in my mind.

“Mad As Rabbits” opens like the “Grease is the word” song from Grease. It’s like somewhere between the 1960s and 70s rock they are trying to emulate and the New Wave of the 80s. I like it, but I don’t know if I like it b/c it’s a good song or if it’s because other songs I like.

All and all, I like the album. It is a change, which I think is to be expected when a band so young becomes so successful. It makes me hopeful for their future. I like it when artist’s make an attempt to change the sound up, as long as a part of their original selves stay. These boys still sound like the performers from the first album. And that’s the key, it’s not just a band singing a song, these boys perform. I really hope they stick around for many years and that they become more than just the Emo Poster boys and the band Pete Wentz of Fall out Boy found. It will be interesting to see how they and the Killers (the other band from Las Vegas) turn out in the coming years.

And that's one thing off my list.

music, review, flogging molly, panic, recs

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