![]() ![]() Nothing on “11 Short Stories of Pain & Glory” will convince haters (c’mon, how can you hate?) to give up their disdain, but for the diehards, the album provides the perfect warm-up to the annual St. Nine albums in, “Rebels With a Cause” and “I Had a Hat” have as much fury as the punk anthems they penned in Kenmore Square in the ’90s. Veteran producer Ted Hutt (who has also worked with Gaslight Anthem and Old Crow Medicine Show) helps provide spaces for those whistles, banjos, bouzoukis and some nice barroom piano on the album closer, “Until the Next Time.” Of course, Hutt and the band know when to dispense with subtleties and when to flat-out rock. “4-15-13” feels more like a delicate Irish gospel song. Sure, they had ballads from the beginning, but a song such as “Far Away Coast” feels brutish. The band’s understated tribute to the victims of the marathon bombing, “4-15-13,” would have felt out of place on the early records. But when you look at the long arc of their career, the Dropkicks have evolved from wild, wonderful grunts into an act that looks for places to add nuance and tenderness. True to formula, the punk comes with all the Celtic trimmings - Tim Brennan has never spent so much time blowing those penny whistles. (While they’ve maximized their fame locally, the band continues to expand its global fan base.)Ĭoming four years after “Signed and Sealed in Blood,” their new LP, “11 Short Stories of Pain & Glory, ” will please the huge portion of the city that loves the guys. But a decade after their star-making soundtrack song, the Dropkicks keep trying to grow their cult with new music. Since “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” blasted out of theater speakers between Jack Nicholson’s foul mouth and Matt Damon’s Southie accent during “The Departed,” every Bostonian has decided they love or hate the hometown heroes. Everybody in Boston made up their minds years ago about the Dropkick Murphys. ![]()
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