With Donald Trump's return to the White House, there was little chance that the Dropkick Murphys would remain silent and placid. After two acoustic albums devoted to adaptations of Woody Guthrie songs (“This Machine Still Kills Fascists” and “Okemah Rising”), the Boston protesters are back with a thirteenth album marked by several collaborations. As you might expect, the guests are not known for their sense of compromise, let alone their ability to submit to the system. We thus find a host of artists from the British Isles whose political and social positions are strongly marked. Whether it's the young members of The Mary Wallopers from Dundalk, the more experienced Dubliners of The Scratch, or the English legend Billy Bragg, they all have a habit of expressing strong opinions.
The result of these partnerships is an album that oscillates between anger and melancholy. “Don't tell us everything is fine,” Ken Casey bellows on the single “Who'll Stand With Us?”, which kicks off the festivities. Both angry and festive, and always with a unifying and unstoppable chorus, this track puts pogo dancing back at the center of the pit. It is joined later by several other tracks that unleash their fury without even incorporating traditional instruments, hitting you right where it hurts without any frills. “The Big Man” pays tribute to Pennywise guitarist Fletcher Draggs with a riff worthy of Motörhead, while “Kids Game” evokes troubled and rebellious childhoods with a bass line reminiscent of the legendary Rickenbacker. As for ‘Fieding For The Lies’, it hits you like a bloody punch in the face, so full of anger is it.
But fans of Celtic folklore need not worry too much, as the accordion, bodhran, mandolin, flute, and bagpipes are far from gone. In fact, there's nothing quite like them to transport us to the heart of a smoky pub and encourage us to raise our pints (“Bury The Bones”). And while our Bostonians are often in a rowdy mood, they nevertheless regularly show nostalgia and have a real talent for evoking departed loved ones and rekindling the flame of their memory. This time, Ken Casey addresses his grandfather, hoping that he would be proud of what he has become through touching lyrics (“Chesterfields And Aftershave”). And could The Dropkick Murphys have continued to look at themselves in the mirror without paying a final tribute to Shane MacGowan, lead singer of The Pogues, who passed away in 2023 (“One Last Goodbye”)?
It's also worth noting that Al Barr reminds us that he is only temporarily stepping back from the band for family reasons, with ‘The Vulture Circle High’ reviving the absence of his deep, raspy voice. The guest appearance of the band's founding singer is further proof that a Dropkick Murphys album is always as convivial as it is provocative. “For The People” is no exception to the rule and even stands out as one of the finest examples of a band that has managed to make indignation endearing.