{"id":8321,"date":"2022-10-02T18:11:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-02T17:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipamusic.co.uk\/?p=8321"},"modified":"2022-12-23T18:12:14","modified_gmt":"2022-12-23T18:12:14","slug":"dropkick-murphys-invoke-the-spirit-of-woody-guthrie-on-this-machine-still-kills-fascists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipamusic.co.uk\/?p=8321","title":{"rendered":"Dropkick Murphys invoke the spirit of Woody Guthrie on This Machine Still Kills Fascists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ALBUM REVIEW: Dropkick Murphys – This Machine Still Kills Fascists (Dummy Luck Music \/ PIAS)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

After returning to form on 2021’s 10th studio album Turn Up That Dial<\/em> (reviewed here<\/a><\/strong>), Dropkick Murphys present the follow-up, and it’s a very different record indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, it’s the most radically different thing they’ve done in their 26-year career, and it’s for that very reason that I love it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s an album which is steeped in roots music, but not the Celtic punk for which the Boston rabble rousers are best known.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With vocalist Al Barr on leave of absence to care for his ailing mother, his bandmates unplugged their amps and made an album of country-tinged folk music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, you read that correctly. But This Machine Stills Kills Fascists<\/em> is no ordinary album; it’s based on the lyrics of Woody Guthrie.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Dropkick Murphys are better known for their Celtic punk.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

DKM founder Ken Casey calls Guthrie “the original punk – he went against the grain, he fought the good fight, he spoke up and sang about his beliefs.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The album title pays homage to the powerful message Guthrie began painting on his guitars in the early 1940s, in the midst of the Second World War: \u201cTHIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course the band have history with the ’40s\/50s singer-songwriter and activist; they covered his song Gonna Be A Blackout Tonight<\/em> on their 2003 album Blackout<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And their biggest hit I’m Shipping Up To Boston<\/em> (featured in the Oscar-winning Hollywood movie The Departed<\/em>) was based on lyrics found in his archive.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Dropkick Murphys have unplugged their amps for their latest album.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

His daughter Nora was so impressed with it that she opened up his entire archive of unused lyrics and words to them, and the result is this wonderful record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over 10 tracks, we have an album which is by turns angry and defiant, proud and uplifting, but always from the heart, and it’s right up there with my favourite DKM releases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It kicks off with the rockabilly shuffle of lead single Two 6’s Upside Down<\/em>, while Ten Times More<\/em> is in the style of a US military marching song, and will soon have you joining in with its clapping, stomping beat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waters Are A-Risin<\/em> is the plaintive story of an American ship sank by an enemy torpedo during World War Two, but leaves you guessing whether there’s a happy ending for the crew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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