FTC: I received this album for free. ~ ed.

Celtic Joy + Social Commentary = Flogging Molly’s new incessantly listenable Speed of Darkness.

Short version:

Easiest review I’ve ever written. What’s not to love?

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Slightly Longer Version:

Disclaimer: I’m a groupie.

I effing looooooove Flogging Molly.

I’ve loved ’em since well before I went to Coachella this year, and they put on a show unrivaled by all there except at-the-top-of-their-game Mumford & Sons—Kanye, Arcade Fire, none of the many well-loved biggies could touch the emotional reaction of Flogging Molly’s fans.

Further Disclaimer: I’m a friend of Bobby Schmidt, the banjo n’mandolin man in this joyful, angry band…I first listened to this album, as it happened, in Bob and his wife Ella’s black hybrid, with my white-hair-shedding half-hound dog Redford appreciatively whining along to the best parts from the back seat (I’d borrowed their car, only owning a bike, to pick up a childhood mentor at DIA).

More detail via Amazon:

2011 album from celebrated Celtic punk ensemble Flogging Molly. Speed Of Darkness is their fifth, and arguably most important album. In the words of lead singer and songwriter Dave King, “It wasn’t the album we set out to write. It became the album we had to write”. Speed Of Darkness was written in Detroit, MI and takes a hardnosed look at the economic collapse in the US: the causes and the direct effect it has had on everyday people. The Motor City serves as the album’s muse and one of the biggest examples of what has gone wrong. While attacking much of the greed and ignorance responsible for where we are, the album also delivers a message of hope, humanity and the resilience of mankind. Speed of Darkness features Flogging Molly’s own blend of Rock, Folk, Punk, Blues and traditional Irish music with King’s populist poetry.

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There’s plenty of other songs, of course—but if you don’t like heart, guts, humor, visceral joy, cathartic sadness and anger…you probs won’t wanna check the rest of the album out.