Singles Collection Volume 2 • 1998-2004 B-sides, covers, Comps & Other Crap

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Dropkick Murphys

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The Singles Collection brings together a bunch of rare tracks from various Dropkick Murphys singles, compilations or splits. All the good stuff from those is here. If you're a hardcore Dropkick Murphys then you probably have all these tracks already but this is a great thing for the casual fan.

There is a lot of good stuff here. There's a surprisingly strong cover of AC/DC's "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock & Roll)" complete with good vocals. A great cover of Gang Green's alcohol. A very garage sounding cover of CCR's oft covered "Fortunate son". "21 Guitar Salute" is a strong cover of the great Press song and the anthemic "Working" is a great addition. The album is mainly covers with a few original songs along with a few splits like the Dropkick Murphys/Business split "Mob Mentality". The covers are for the most part including covers from **** Sparrer, Danzig, and Motorhead amongst others.

The quality of the album and the presentation is strong and all the songs sound as crisp as any of their albums. The strong vocal quality, talented instrumental work and original sound are all here in full force so this should be a good buy for any Dropkick Murphys fan. 4 stars.

The problem isn't that this is a set of cover songs. The problem is that around their tenth year the Dropkicks changed direction from rebellious punk - working class to their core - into another wanna-be arena band. The whole sound is different, from the arrangements to the production. Their choice of material is fine, though I don't see how their cover of "Nutrocker" adds anything to any discussion and the censored "Pipebomb" should have been left on the cutting room floor (they say its a joke but it's not really funny and I'll never get those minutes of my life back), but in their new guise they want to be butcher than the originals. The Business, Angelic Upstarts used to throw bottles - I suspect these Murphys would make sure the bottle was empty before they let one go. Calculated anger. Gang Green, whose "Alcohol" is here, is a fair comparison, and that doesn't reflect well on the Hellcat band. If this is a band that can do no wrong in your eyes then a review is irrelevant. But if you've heard some older stuff you like and are wondering if this might be a good more extended introduction I'd stick with the first SINGLES COLLECTION collecting their earlier years. That first one was a keeper.