Album review: Dropkick Murphys – For The People

Check your vital signs if you don’t feel a sense of righteous anger on watching the video for Who’ll Stand With Us, the lead track and call-to-action opener from For The People. The latter is the Dropkick Murphys' 13th studio album, and after a few lean years since co-frontman Al Barr had to step back for family reasons, the Celtic punk legends are in reeling, anthem-filled form, bolstered by their trademark gang vocal hooks. It’s classic Murphys – a band with nothing left to prove, but much still to offer.

That opener is simply the best song they’ve released in over a decade, performed with the type of hard driven, working-class conviction that gave them life in the first place. The video focuses on an alarming news story that hasn’t been reported much this side of the Atlantic – people being abducted by U.S. authorities for forcible deportation.

Its rage is entirely justified, though thankfully not all the album is this dark. Pennywise’s Fletcher Dragge will hopefully see the funny side of The Big Man, a stampeding albeit very cheeky tribute to the hulking guitarist. Murphys’ singer Ken Casey can barely contain his joy when recommending Fletcher for ‘If you need your hotel room wrecked, or a bandmate thrown through a drum set.’

Then you’ve got alternative Irish rockers The Scratch (who impressed early risers at Download) collaborating on both Longshot’s superb trad-pomp and strangely moving closer One Last Goodbye. The latter’s a tribute to Shane MacGowan who died in 2023, and it’s the kind of tongue-in-cheek salute you’d imagine the Pogues icon hissing his famous toothless laugh at.

Just as good is the rockier-pitched The Vultures Circle High which features a hugely welcome return for Al Barr. It’s a one-off for now, but who knows what the future holds for this unstoppably raucous and most humanely charitable of bands – they’re more family than business. Whatever, this is their best album in years.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Rancid, AC/DC, The Interrupters

For The People is released July 4 via Dummy Luck Music