Flogging Molly

Life Is Good

Written by: PP on 27/07/2017 06:19:50

"Life Is Good" is the latest fiasco in the meteoric spiral to irrelevancy by Flogging Molly, who haven't written a solid album since 2004's "Within A Mile Of Home". A regrettable shift in style to appeal towards contemporary rock and mature audiences on "Float" continues mostly unabated on their 6th album, which, aside from a few exceptions, gives the impression of a band to book for your local town's annual central square market as background entertainment. Just ask yourself this: when "Life Is Good" was originally announced, how excited were you for another Flogging Molly album in 2017? Right?

Where did it all go so wrong? To this scribe, it is obvious. Once the punk element is all but drained from folk punk, the resulting expression is a far less exciting folk rock expression that's difficult to fault on paper, but not exactly one to excite you on first listen. Think back to the "Drunken Lullabies" times and remember the energizing, upbeat nature of the songs that had you lock your arms with the closest bystander during live shows and off you went having a blast for the rest of the night. Now try to imagine doing the same to the indie rocker "Reptiles (We Woke Up)". Not gonna happen. The violins are too tasteful, the mandolin too relaxed and controlled, and the song way too safe and mainstream oriented in general to leave a lasting impression.

Same applies to "The Days We've Yet To Meet": yes, from a songwriting perspective, it's a good song. A fairly catchy chorus and an easy-listening vibe guarantee an okay experience for the masses. But that's just it: this is never going to be the song to get the crowd off their feet in a live environment like in the past. Not to even mention the lack of value add for music enthusiasts like mostly everyone reading this magazine.

Life might be good for Flogging Molly: they are rolling around in easy cash for playing every folk fest and mainstream music festival known to man. But can they really look back at "Life Is Good" as a positive experience? The album signifies most of all what it sounds like when you drain all the fun and passion out of your music and resort to writing autopilot career musician songs that keep your career alive based on a strong back catalogue. Let's just put it this way: remove "The Hand Of John L. Sullivan" and "Welcome To Adamstown" from the equation: would you still buy this album?

5

Download: The Hand Of John L. Sullivan, Welcome To Adamstown
For the fans of: The Pogues, The Mahones, The Dubliners
Listen: Facebook

Release date 02.06.2017
Universal Music

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