{grate 2} After riding the success of 2006’s live EP Whiskey on a
Sunday, Flogging Molly returns with their first studio album in four years,
Float, a strangely appropriate title — the band, rather than push the envelope
as it did with 2004’s Within a Mile of Home, decided instead to casually float
along, emerging with a disappointing mix of mid-tempo rockers that you forget
as soon as each track ends.
It’s not that the songs are necessarily bad — they’re
uninspired carbon copies of the last three records: same banjo/bass/acoustic
guitar rhythm section, same concertina/fiddle/tin whistle melodies with the
occasional flare of an electric guitar, same mix of up and down-tempo parts,
same lyrical topics — the grimness of reality, sins of the government, etc.
etc.
The opening track, “Requiem for a Dying Song” is a fun
little ditty, with cute lyrics hilariously backed by Dave King’s thick Irish
Brogue. It’s a bouncy number that saunters rather than sprints along.
“A Paddy’s Lament” starts with promise, a raucous intro that
lasts for all of 10 seconds before trailing off into King wailing over a
pedestrian and almost static rhythm. The song’s highlight is a 15-second guitar
solo that quickly fades back into the dull tune.
Flogging Molly even stole some of the lyrics and arrangement
from their previous songs: in “Requiem” King takes the opportunity to croon
“Agonyyyy” over a drum line just like he does in 2004’s “
melodramatic down-tempo ending, just like 2004’s “Screaming at the Wailing
Wall.” This happens enough times on a enough tracks that you really start to
wonder just how lazy the band got when crafting the new tracks.
The only song that stands out is a ballad called “The Story
So Far.” Featuring a pleasantly simple arrangement that’s a welcome change from
the generic rockers that infest the album, the song wafts along with a pleasant
atmosphere.
This definitely falls in the “diehards only” category, and
even then they should just download it off the Internet.
