By Andries the ‘DutchIrishBastard’
There’s a number of interesting websites and/or e-zines dedicated to Celtic punk or Celtic folk punk, or whatever label one might prefer to use for the music that arose in the footsteps of, or at least since, The Pogues. Four of them recently published a ranking of the best 2011 cd’s in the field.
Three of these four − PaddyRock (USA), RockKultur Mag (Ger.) and Shitenonions (USA) − seem to rate cd’s into ‘best of’ lists all themselves, whereas CelticFolkPunk (Spain) took votes from visitors to the website. Two other interesting sources of information and reviews PaddyPunx (UK) and Celtic-Rock (Ger.) did not construe ‘best of’ lists, or at least did not do so yet at the time of writing (New Years Day).
Below are the top five from all four of those lists. Based on that, a “best of in the best of 2011” list can be calculated. The procedure adopted was simple: a #1 got 5 points, a #2 got 4 points, .., and a #5 got one point.
Now then, what does this basic bit of calculating tell us? A number of things!
For one, it shows that the four top 5′s (note that Shitenonions strangely in fact produced a top 6) vary a lot in terms of cd’s mentioned. No fewer than a total of 14 different cd’s found their way into the various top 5’s. This indicates that there is little consensus as to which of the 2011 cd’s are the best (with one exception). This can mean either of two things, or both. The one is that there was such a wide supply of good releases in 2011 that it is only logical that the ‘best of’ lists differ from one another. The other one is that these lists, esp. those made up by the people running a site, merely display a difference in taste. As there is no way of knowing which of the two is more true, let’s assume the truth is somewhere in the middle.
Yet bands scoring high in a certain list understandably are pretty eager to show their feathers. Therefore an average score based on four lists is at least somewhat more telling than just one of them lists on its own. According to this average, there’s three cd’s that clearly stand out:
#1 Sir Reg: A Sign of the Times, mentioned in all four, 14 points
#2 Mahones: Black Irish, mentioned three times, 11 points
#3 Dropkick Murphys: Going Out In Style, mentioned twice, 8 points
Especially the Sir Reg achievement to show up in all four top 5 lists, and never lower than at #3, is telling something (to be honest, yer man has to show his cards and has to confess he played some accordion on their cd, so beware of his possible pre-occupation here .. ). Mahones showed up in three ‘best of’ top 5’s and Dropkicks in two. Of all the other bands, only Bastards on Parade did so, coming in fifth twice.
Any other surprises? Well yes: Flogging Molly got mentioned only once, at second place, so they only got up to 4 points.
One final remark is that it is noteworthy that two lists had a #1 that did not appear in the other top 5’s at all: RockKultur with Paddy and the Rats (Hymns for Bastards) and Shitenonions with Radiators from Space (Trouble Pilgrim). Diamonds overlooked by the others?
So here are the 4 ‘best of’ top 5 cd’s:
PaddyRock (USA)
http://www.paddyrock.com/home/?p=1174
- Sir Reg: Sign Of The Times
- Mahones: Black Irish
- Dropkick Murphys: Going Out In Style
- Fisticuffs: You’ll Not Take Us Alive
- Fighting Jamesons: Fighting Jamesons
RockKultur (Germany)
http://www.rockkultur.net/archives/8521
- Paddy And The Rats: Hymns For Bastards
- Brick Top Blaggers: Coaster
- Sir Reg: Sign Of The Times
- Fiddlers Green: Wall of folk
- Ramschackle Army: Life Lessons And Drunken Sessions
Shitenonions (USA)
http://www.shitenonions.com/blog/?p=3195
- Mahones: Black Irish /Radiators from Space: Trouble Pilgrim
- Jack Flash: Jack Flash
- Sir Reg: Sign Of The Times
- Horslips: Live At The O2
- Bastards On Parade: Tales From The Death Shore
Celtic Folk Punk (Spain)
http://celticfolkpunk.blogspot.com/2012/01/top10-albums-of-year-2011.html
- Dropkick Murphys: Going Out In Style
- Flogging Molly: Speed Of Darkness
- Sir Reg: Sign Of The Times
- Mahones: Black Irish
- Bastards On Parade: Tales From The Death Shore
I’m honestly quite surprised how flogging molly’s latest release isn’t included in many of 2011′s end lists. Sir reg though, i have to agree does deserve a high spot on each list, as well do Paddy and the rats. Dropkick delivered a good album as well, though it wasn’t as good as their glory days.
I like Andries the ‘DutchIrishBastard” analysis – the best of the best off – it negates regional favoritism (Chicago based paddyrock likes Chicago based bands, RockKultur is heavy on German bands) and personal taste/prejudice – shite’n'onions keep both Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys outta our list because they don’t need our help and we would rather give a spot to the an upcoming band then one of the big 2. There was no science to the shite’n'onions list – it was the stuff we kept playing all year and the new bands that impressed the most. Also, I think all sites received a different selection of CDs – paddy and the rats, fiddlers green and Brick Top Blaggers did not send us CDs and we didn’t have time to chase ‘em down. I’m guessing we were they only site to listen to Horslip and The Radiators (personal taste and relationships there). That said Andries the ‘DutchIrishBastard”’s top 3 is probably very accurate (at least about the top 2 anyway and about Flogging Molly)