With St. Patrick's Day looming on the horizon, Dave King and his posse of Irish punks have released an album that will surely be played during the festivities. Flogging Molly's most recent release, Float, is a somewhat refreshing departure from their previous efforts. The band sheds their skin for the first time, exchanging their hard-edged, Celtic punk-rock sensibilities for more substantial songwriting and a more mature, better balanced style. This may sound all well and good, but the move could prove dangerous to the band's reputation.
From a purely instrumental standpoint, Flogging Molly has produced some of their finest work for Float. The band has slowed the pacing of their songs a bit, allowing the traditional Irish instruments to shine. In previous albums, Flogging Molly's frantic tempos drowned out their more eccentric elements, such as the banjo, tin whistle and accordion, while more traditional guitar, bass and drum sounds dominated the mix. The new sound demonstrates a shift from their usual stylistic formula (two parts punk and one part Irish folk) to a more even ratio. Unfortunately, this beautiful mixture of musical styles created by Flogging Molly is overshadowed by mediocre songwriting.
Float is easily Flogging Molly's most lyrically substantial album, considering that all their previous releases address little more than pirates, Irish pride and drinking large quantities of alcohol. In what turned out to be a mistake in my eyes, the band changed their songwriting to address more traditional and complex themes found in music, such as love and identity. While it is good to see Flogging Molly add more substance to their songs, they are definitely ill-equipped with the overly simplistic songs present throughout the album. Some tunes are written in such a rudimentary fashion that they sound downright silly. Lyrics like "Between a man and a woman / It's everything or nothing at all" can be found throughout the album, making it terribly awkward at times.
This is not to say that the entire album is a failure; songs such as "Paddy's Lament" and "Man With No Country" stand out from the rest. Sadly though, these tracks are only strong because they rely heavily on the band's old conventions and serve as homage to their previous works. On Float's title track, the songwriting is just slightly above average -- but the piece is saved by breaks in the lyrics that feature floating accordion and fiddle interludes.
Overall, Float is a very important album for the 11-year-old Irish folk-punk fusion veterans. The band has finally found a perfect balance in style and only needs to follow up their future efforts with better songwriting. By venturing outside of their comfort zone, the band shows they are willing to be more than a novelty act. Get this album if you are a longtime fan and wish to see the new direction the band is taking. Otherwise, it would be wise to steer clear this time and wait to see if Dave King and the motley crew of Irish punks can further develop their lyrics and structure to match their excellent new sound. 3
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