Blackout

Man, I really like Dropkick Murphys.

Some bands peak early, and leave their best work behind them. But the more I listen to it, the more I'm thinking The Meanest of Times is their best yet.

But, for whatever reason, I'd never owned Blackout. I finally picked it up a few weeks ago at Amoeba. I gave it a listen and... I just wasn't crazy about it. The production sounded a little too slick, the songs didn't grab me. I thought it was to DKM what Digimortal is to Fear Factory.

I was in the (for me) odd position of setting aside a DKM disc.

I'm kinda glad I did. I went away for a week, came back, jumped right back into writing FRANK. A lot of the tunes I usually kick when I write were feeling a bit worn out. Just to have something new, I decided to give Blackout a spin.

And I really liked it. I've listened to it several times since, and I dig it more each time.

I'm not really sure where the lukewarm initial response came from. Maybe I wasn't in the mood, or perhaps I'd been listening to Times so much I wasn't ready for something from an earlier stage in their evolution.

Whatever, I don't care. Blackout's a good CD.