The Meanest of Times

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The Meanest of Times
Studio album by Dropkick Murphys

Publication
(s)

September 21, 2007

admission

April-June 2007

Label (s) indigo

Format (s)

CD , LP

Genre (s)

Folk rock , folk punk

Title (number)

16

running time

54 min 33 s

occupation
  • Matt Kelly - drums , backing vocals
  • James Lynch - guitar, backing vocals
  • Ken Casey - bass , vocals

production

Dropkick Murphys

Studio (s)

The Outpost, Stoughton , Massachusetts

chronology
The Warrior's Code
(2005) 		The Meanest of Times Live on Lansdowne, Boston MA
(2010)
Single releases
The State of Massachusetts
Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya

The Meanest of Times is the sixth studio album by the American folk punk - band Dropkick Murphys . It was published in German-speaking countries on September 21, 2007 by Indigo .

Emergence

The recordings began in April 2007 in the studio "The Outpost" in Stoughton , Massachusetts and lasted 3 months, so the recordings were finished in June 2007. In August 2007 the band released a version of the song Flannigan's Ball on their Myspace page. The album itself was released in the USA on September 18, 2007, in Germany it was released three days later.

The song The State of Massachusetts , which is the theme tune of the television series Nitro Circus , gained fame .

Songs

The songs "(F) lannigan's Ball", "Fairmount Hill" and " Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya " are based on traditional Irish folk songs, with the lyrics of "(F) lannigan's Ball" (= " Lanigan's Ball ") and "Fairmount Hill "(=" Spancil Hill ") have been greatly changed compared to the original. They each contain various allusions to locations in the Boston area and to people close to the band.

"(F) lannigan's Ball" was partially recorded at Westland Studios in Dublin . Ronnie Drew from the well-known Irish folk band " The Dubliners " and Spider Stacy from " The Pogues " played on this song . The song is dedicated to Drew's wife Deirdre, who died a few weeks before the recording. It was also the last song that Ronnie Drew recorded before he passed away on August 16, 2008 at the age of 73.

Track list

  1. Famous for Nothing - 2:47
  2. God Willing - 3:16
  3. The State of Massachusetts - 3:55
  4. Tomorrow's Industry - 2:19
  5. Echoes On "A." Street - 3:17
  6. Vices and Virtues - 2:11
  7. Surrender - 3:15
  8. Flannigan's Ball (with Ronnie Drew and Spider Stacy ) - 3:39
  9. I'll Begin Again - 2:38
  10. Fairmount Hill - 3:58
  11. Loyal to No One - 2:25
  12. Shattered - 2:47
  13. Rude Awakenings - 3:23
  14. Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya - 3:54
  15. Never Forget - 2:51
  16. Jailbreak ( Thin Lizzy Cover) - 3:54

Chart placements

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
The Meanest of Times
  US 20th 10/06/2007 (10 weeks)

The album only made it into the charts in the United States , where it reached 20th place and stayed in the top 200 for 10 weeks.

Reviews

American US by the press was discussed mostly positive album, Metacritic calculated an average of 72% of eight reviews and awards the title of gene rally favorable (dt. Basically positive ).

Corey Apar awards four out of five possible points on Allmusic and describes the album as a typical album of the band, "that brings a typical pub atmosphere."

The album gets 3.5 out of five points from sputnikmusic.com. Critic Mike Allen says the band has not changed and has neither really improved nor deteriorated.

The German critics rated the album mostly less positively. Mathias Möller from Laut.de rated the album with two out of five stars and said that the concept that remained the same on the sixth album no longer worked.

Also Plattentests.de awarded four out of ten. According to Jochen Gedwien, who wrote the review, The Meanest of Times contains too many filler numbers.

occupation

  • Ronnie Drew - vocals in "(F) lannigan's Ball"
  • Spider Stacy - vocals in "(F) lannigan's Ball"
  • Halley Feaster - violoncello
  • Keith Dickerhofe - violoncello
  • Mike Calabrese - violoncello
  • Jeni Magaña - percussion
  • Matthew Edwards - percussion
  • Andy Reiner - violin
  • Armand Aromin - violin
  • Chris Baum - violin
  • John Kingslet - violin
  • Tim Weed - violin

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Mathias Möller: Irish to the point of vomiting. On: laut.de. Retrieved June 6, 2012
  2. ↑ Dropkick Murphys: “(F) lannigan's Ball” (alternate version). From: punknews.org, August 12, 2007. Retrieved June 8, 2012
  3. ↑ a b information and criticism. On: allmusic.com (English). Retrieved June 8, 2012
  4. ↑ Music in Nitro Circus on mtv.com (English). Retrieved June 8, 2012
  5. ↑ a b Dropkick Murphys in the US album charts.
  6. ↑ The Meanest of Times on metacritic.com (English). Retrieved June 8, 2012
  7. ↑ Mike Allen: Review on sputnikmusic.com (English), December 10, 2009. Retrieved June 8, 2012
  8. ↑ Jochen Gedwien: Exhausted. On: plattentests.de. Retrieved June 8, 2012