Album Review : The Meanest Of Times - Dropkick Murphys**** For Fans Of : Gogol Bordello, The Pogues, Rancid On this, the Dropkick Murphys 6th album, the band are like atestosterne injected nightmare version of The Pogues, actually, come to think of it, The Pogues are are a nightmare version of The Pogues, but I digress. From the opener 'Famous for Nothing' to the closing number 'Never Forget' (there is another track, a truly awful reworking of Thin Lizzy's Jailbreak, but let's pretend that never happened) the pace barely lets up. There are still some traditional celtic instruments and sounds here but they are blended with enough raucous guitars and pounding drums to ensure that their folk-punk fusion is much more biased to the latter of the two styles. The Dropkick Murphys sound is angry but infectious, Al Barr and Ken Casey roar and bellow over the highly danceable / moshable racket going on behind them. the lyrics are tales of loss and revelry, family and friends, 'Vices And Virtues' tell of four brothers killed by "whisky, war, suicide and guns" whilst 'Flannigan's Ball' is the description of the most uproarious, riotous party you could ever wish to be invited to. I forgot to include this in my 'Top Albums of 2007', but the relentless and aggressive energy of TMOT has meant that it has been on my i-pod almost constantly since its release last year. A barnstorming, booze drenched, blood on the concert hall floor album, the Dropkick Murphys on fine and furious form.