With new vocalist Al Barr
The Gang's All Hers (Epitaph, 1999) is no less uncompromising,
and Blood And Whiskey and Pipebomb On Lansdowne keep the
flag flying high.
Augmented to a (fearful) septet,
on Sing Loud Sing Proud (Epitaph, 2001)
the Murphys still play the same anthemic hardcore bacchanals
with the ferocity of a bunch of wild drunken hooligans imbued with the
indomitable spirit of Irish folk music
(For Boston, The Wild Rover,
Which Side Are You On).
If proof is needed on who influenced these punks,
Shane MacGowan in person takes off his shirt for Good Rats.
On Blackout (Hellcat, 2003)
they try to be more accessible, but can't completely hide their drunk, demented personas
(Worker's Song, Walk Away, Kiss Me I'm #!@*faced).
Mike McColgan formed the Street Dogs and released
Savin Hill (Cross Check, 2003).
The Warrior's Code (Hellcat, 2005) veered towards punk-pop with the
catchy Sunshine Highway dished out
next to revamped folk tunes
(notably Woody Guthrie's I'm Shipping Up To Boston)
and straightforward punk-rock rigmaroles.
Something for everybody, but nothing that stands out.
The exuberance is still the same on
The Meanest Of Times (Born & Bread, 2007), but, oddly enough,
only the Celtic-tinged
Faimount Hill and Flannigan's Ball sound in synch with the times,
while the purely hardcore numbers sound like footage from an era that does
not exist anymore. Nonetheless nobody like them knows how to turn
melodic square dances like The State Of Massachusetts into blue-collar anthems.
Going Out in Style (Born & Bred, 2011), ostensibly a working-class
concept album, exploits their trademark rousing Celtic overtones for
something that would be more appropriate for the
intellectual singer-songwriters of the 1970s than for the rowdy pub-rockers
of the 21st century, although in a couple of cases
(Memorial Day and Sunday Hardcore Matinee one glimpses that
the difference is only in how fast one plays the notes.
Signed and Sealed in Blood (2013) contained facile singalongs such as
Out of Our Heads and
The Boys are Back, and even
the power-ballad Rose Tattoo
and the Christmas waltz The Season's Upon Us.
