No.99 - ‘Drunken Lullabies’, by Flogging Molly (2002)
“Toast to tears of time’s past glories; This ageless clock chime stalls; Where to kiss the lips of that love forgotten; To fly where no others have soared …” Back in the early noughties, I would set my tape recorder to record at 2am. I had discovered ‘The Lockup’, a weekly punk rock and hardcore radio show on BBC Radio 1, hosted in LA by Mike Davies. As i slipped the first cassette into my walkman on my way to school, I was instantly hit with a frantic banjo and pounding bass drum introduction followed by the raucous overdriven guitar, fiddle and accordion…this was Flogging Molly and Drunken Lullabies. With influences including the Pogues, Dubliners, and the Clash, this album pulls out plenty of hectic, yet melodic, celtic punk tunes with a splashing of more traditional Irish tinged folk songs. The lyrics are poetic, whilst “decrying the ills of modern society” - All Music . At first, it seems hard to differentiate between certain songs but after plenty of years of li...