If you have never heard of them before, Enter the Haggis is usually described as a celtic rock band, mainly because of the bagpipes, pan flute & fiddle. They have been featured on Regis & Kelly, Canada AM (video at the bottom), PBS and Breakfast with the Arts (A&E). Back in the early days, ETH made a name for themselves on the celtic/irish festival circuit for their modern/high energy interpretations of traditional celtic & irish songs, but on the past few albums they have been evolving tremendously, taking some exciting genre-bending risks along the way.
Now, i should mention their last album “Soapbox Heroes” – was probably my least favorite ETH album (sorry guys hehe). The production was slick, the musicianship was exemplary as usual and there were a few catchy tunes like new monthly flavour & one last drink, but something was just lacking for me overall. I do not feel this way about Gutter Anthems at all. I cannot stop listening to this album, check my last.fm profile for proof! This album is a very special musical creation and while i don’t usually talk about album reviews here, today i make an exception.
Here are some of my personal favorites:
Litter & the Leaves: a ridiculously catchy nod to Dropkick Murphy’s, Green Day & Freddy Mercury
Cameos: A great poppy folk song many will find reminiscent of Great Big Sea.
Death of Johnny Mooring: A hard rocker that tells the story of a Canadian fiddle great who was killed outside a bar one night in 1974. The vivid imagery in storytelling is prevalent on other tracks as well (check out “Noseworthy & Piercy”!).
DNA: One of the catchiest, radio friendly songs on the album. Love the REM/Goo Goo Dolls’ish guitar melodies.
Lights & Cars: Lush vocal harmonies, the ending reminds me of “They Stood up for Love” by Live. Check it out, i’m not crazy.
Murphy’s Ashes: Rush would be proud of this prog-rock instrumental accomplishment. As a musician myself i can tell you shuffle + hard rock is not an easy thing to pull off but when it works (as it does here) it’s awesome.
Suburban Plains: Fans of Paul Simon’s Graceland or world music should dig this tune, featuring some masterful drumming/percussion and African inspired guitar lines.
These are just my personal favorites, but every track is strong. I think that’s part of what makes this album so special. Like classic ‘rootsy’ albums that came before it such as “Crash” by Dave Matthews Band, Gutter Anthems is a melodic tour de force which i HIGHLY recommend everyone should check out.
You can listen to the whole album for free here. If you like what you hear, share their music with your friends, buy their stuff, go to their shows & be sure to follow them on Twitter / Facebook / Myspace & Youtube.
Nicely done, now if I could just sound so affluent I would write one myself. Adding to list of things to do, write a review of Gutter Anthems.