Flogging Molly - Float
Flogging Molly's third full length album is darker than a lot of albums I've heard in the past few years, and certainly the darkest of Molly's collection.
The Molly's have always been a Irish-folk "drinking makes everything better" type band. But the mood on Swagger and Drunken Lullaby's invoked a feeling of lightheartedness when it came to drinking. Drinking made everything more fun. On Float, things are a bit different. Even the album cover carries a gloomy connotation. More of the songs on the album are in a minor key and the lyrical content matches. Perhaps the slowest, saddest orchestration on the record is the title track:
Drank away the rest of the day
Wonder what my liver'd say,
Drink, It's all you can
Blackened days with their bigger gales
Blow in your parlor to discuss the day
Listen, it's all you can
Ah but don't, no, don't sink the boat
That you built, you built to keep afloat
Ah no don't, no don't sink the boat
That you built...
Sick and tired of what to say
No one listens anyway,
Sing, that's all you can
Rambling years of lousy luck
You miss the smell of burnin' turf,
Dream, it's all you can
...and so on. It's only an excerpt, but you get the idea. Although a solid majority of the songs parallel this drunken, bleak pessimism (or perhaps grim realisim), there are upbeat songs interspersed that are reminiscent of the Flogging Molly we all know and love. This album exhibits the most musical growth that the Molly's have shown since their debut record Swagger. It's probably safe to say that come St. Paddy's day when I get together with friends to drink Harp's, smoke cigars, and listen to Molly, the mood will be grim in the event that we choose this album.
That being said, I'm glad Flogging Molly has put out a great new record, and with this degree of maturation, I'm curious to see where they could go next.
7.5/10
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