The Meanest of Times
The Meanest of Times, from the Dropkick Murphys, is an album from a band who formed in Boston, Massachusetts back in 1996, and whose humble beginnings include jamming in the basement of a friend's barbershop. The group's lineup includes Al Barr, Ken Casey, Matt Kelly, James Lynch, Tim Brennan, Marc Orrell and Scruffy Wallace, and they all brought their juvenile musical influences to the band's unique sound. The Dropkick Murphys' fusion of punk rock, Irish folk, rock and hard-core gives them a sound that listeners will find both hypnotic and empowering.
"Famous for Nothing" has pounding drum play and searing guitar work as the vocalists bellow about dealing with the ups and downs of preeminence and popularity, with lines such as, "Don't ya know. Don't ya know/Here we go. Here we go/Troubles of a long night on the town/Big ones in the way but I know how to handle them." It seems this song is a type of warning to those who think fame is always rosy, when it does have its downside.
On "Vices And Virtues," even more powerful drum work is prevalent and the vocalist's timbre has a raspy quality that gives the track an intimidating edge as he emotes such lines as, "He was shocked and institutionalized while hanging from a rope/They'll be no heroes/One more war. One more suicide." The lyrics of this song might upset some listeners with its blunt imagery, but others might identify with its tone and what the group is attempting to convey with it.
"Fairmount Hill" has a dissimilar rhythm from the previous tracks. The pace of the song is much slower and the Irish folk influence can be heard with the use of the bodhran, which is an Irish frame drum measuring from 25 to 65 centimeters in diameter. The vocalist's tone is methodical and strikingly rough as he croons lines like, "At Fairmount Hill, it was on its way/Friends are simpletons. The young. The old. The brave and the bold."
The Dropkick Murphys' The Meanest of Times has a roughness that illustrates the group's hard-core background, but also has an intermingling of lighter rhythms. This sharply contrasts the rabid tones that listeners will find in excess on the record. If listeners can get beyond the frequent yelping by the vocalist, they will find an emotional album that could trigger feelings and thoughts they believed to be long buried.