Gang's All Here

Dropkick Murphys | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 23, 1999)
• Original Release Date: March 16, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Hellcat Records
• ASIN: B00000I5L9
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,500 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #22 in Music > Indie Music > Alternative Rock > Hardcore & Punk
  • #50 in Music > Indie Music > Alternative Rock > General
  • #85 in Music > Alternative Rock > Hardcore & Punk > Punk Revival

Editorial Reviews

No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: DROPKICK MURPHYS
Title: GANG'S ALL HERE
Street Release Date: 03/16/1999
Domestic
Genre: PUNK

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Play it loud!, September 3, 2003

By 

Wheelchair Assassin (The Great Concavity) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Gang's All Here (Audio CD)

For the most part, the Dropkick Murphys don't play their instruments all that well. Vocalist Al Barr sounds like the cookie monster, and bassist and co-vocalist Ken Casey won't make anyone forget about Frank Sinatra either. Their songs are short, simple, and heavily indebted to punk bands of old. The likes of Beethoven probably roll over in their graves whenever these guys release a new album.

So why the lofty rating? It's simple, so simple in fact it can be expressed in a single word: heart. The Murphys put more of themselves and their emotion into their music than just about anyone I've ever heard. Their booze-soaked, Irish-inflected punk rock sound is the sound of a band of regular guys that actually care about what they're doing, not about what will get them on the radio or endear them to the pretentious. They've gotten away from those roots a bit on their last two albums, especially the recent "Blackout," which while competently written and played, doesn't display much of the fire and energy that once characterized the band. However, on their debut "Do Or Die" and its followup "The Gang's All Here," the Murphys can be heard in all their raucous glory.

For "The Gang's All Here," the Murphys faced the rather daunting task of replacing departed singer Mike McColgan, but Al filled the bill so well the guys didn't miss a beat. Al's cookie monster-growl may not be quite as endearing as Mike's brogue-tinged shout, but it's still more than adequate. Indeed, it's hard to imagine such songs as "Blood And Whiskey" and "The Only Road" performed by anyone else.

In the end, though, what makes "The Gang's All Here" such a triumph is the fact that, like "Do Or Die," it's filled with classic songs. "Blood And Whiskey," "Pipebomb On Landsdowne," "Perfect Stranger," and "The Only Road" are all perfect examples of prototypical, foot-stomping punk anthems. They're loud, they're fast, they're short, and they'll likely have you banging your head and reaching for a beer in no time (although I wouldn?t recommend that second part if you're driving). Matt Kelly is an excellent drummer, way above the punk standard, and his maniacal skin pounding may well do more than anything else to separate the Murphys from the pack. What the guitars lack in sophistication they make up for in raw power, and the same can be said of the vocals.

The adrenaline rush provided by the songs mentioned above and a few others may be the best thing about "The Gang's All Here," but the quality doesn't stop there. Songs like "Upstarts And Broken Hearts" and the positively heart-wrenching "Wheel Of Misfortune" slow things down for more of an emotive and thoughtful approach, with some surprisingly intelligent lyrics to match. My personal favorite here, "Curse Of A Fallen Soul," starts out as a slow and melancholic elegy to a dead friend, and the first time I heard this song I thought early on that it would be another slow tune. Well, I thought wrong, because about a minute in the song turns fast and heavy on a dime for a dynamic roughly equivalent to having a safe dropped on your head. In another surprise, the band does an all-instrumental cover of the classic "Amazing Grace," and their mix of bagpipes and hard-driving punk riffs works a lot better than one might expect.

Hearing this album, it's easy to see why the Murphys have become such heroes in their (and my) native Massachusetts. They've packed them in for multiple shows at one the biggest clubs in Boston for two straight St. Patrick's Day weekends, and justifiably so. Success may have dulled their edge a bit, but it's still easy to tell that these guys are at the very least making efforts to stay in touch with their fans. Hopefully they'll be a source of good music for a while to come.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars New Album has more roots than you think, July 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Gang's All Here (Audio CD)

Although the old Irish feel of Do or Die is lost with the new singer, After listening to this album for a few months, you discover the abundance of trad. Dropkick style."The Fighting 69th" has that feel as well as the fiddle in the "Wheel of Misfortune," the bagpipes in "Amazing Grace," and the irish styled "Gangs All Here." The one downfall on this album is the lack of good hardcore songs. "Blood and Whiskey" kicks maximum ass and is probably one of the best Dropkick Songs, but alot of them just drain on and aren't very melodic. But after listening to the album for a while (I didn't like it at first) you find the strong irish folk music mixed very well in half of the songs which you didn't notice before.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Allroy0234, February 28, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Gang's All Here (Audio CD)

I believe this record ranks up there with Bad Religion's "Suffer", one of the greatest punk records ever made. The Gang's all Here is in general, a recording of UNITY. Something that is missing in the Punk scene. Songs about friendship, death and the wroking class...........It's all here