Irish rock and roll is dead, hail Irish rock and roll.<\/p>\n
U2 hasn’t done a decent album in nine years, instead becoming
\nself-indulgent stadium rockers who equate incomprehensibility with
\nintellectualism; In Tua Nua is forgotten; Sinead O’Connor gave up a
\nbrilliant first CD to become the Pope’s primary public detractor,
\nand then hooked up with The Artist From The Outer Darkness; and the
\nless said about the Cranberries, the better. (Sorry, Crans fans;
\nuntil Delores O’Riordan stops hitting Rs like Kevin Cronin on
\nProzac, I won’t listen to her. Enunciation
\nis<\/i> a part of music theory.)<\/p>\n
But wait, there’s hope. Irish rockers the Saw Doctors formed in
\n1987 in County Galway, their goal being a fusion of Irish
\nsensibilities and traditional American rock and roll. Within two
\nyears, they had the biggest single in Irish charts history, “I
\nUsedta Lover”, which spent nine weeks at Number One. Since then,
\nthey’ve produced four albums.
\nSing A Powerful Song<\/i> is an American compilation release of
\ntheir first three CDs in the UK. (As a side note, I’m still
\ndebating whether I like this marketing technique, used by Great Big
\nSea most recently. While I understand that releasing one CD as a
\ntest is cheaper than cutting three, it would be nice if the full
\nalbums were then released later, something we’re still waiting for
\nwith both Great Big Sea and the Saw Doctors).<\/p>\n
Let it be stated here: the Saw Doctors are just a whole lot of
\nfun. These lads aren’t some sort of pseudo-Celtic mystics, Clannad
\nin flannel; they’re rock and rollers who happen to be Irish, what
\nyou’d get if Bruce Springsteen had grown up in Galway instead of
\nNew Jersey.
\nSing A Powerful Song<\/i> isn’t an intellectual experience,
\nparticularly; it’s a visceral one, and a hoot at that.<\/p>\n
Tracks that bear particular attention: “It Won’t Be Tonight”, a
\ndriving paean to breakups and moving on; “Macnas Parade”, a joyful
\ntribute to an annual festival in Ireland; “N17”, the regrets of an
\nIrish expatriate in America; “Red Cortina”, “Never Mind The
\nStrangers”…oh, heck, it’s all good. “Share The Darkness” is a
\nsoft and moving love song, gentle and oddly emotional for such an
\notherwise straightforward band, and “Hay Wrap” is…er…well, put
\nit this way: Saw Doctors lead vocalist Leo Moran wanted to prove
\nthere was indigenous rap music to Ireland. This is a scary thought
\nin and of itself. And finally, ending the CD, the bouncy,
\nblasphemous, rollicking “I Usedta Lover” shares the thoughts of a
\nyoung man whose piety ends when a certain behind appears at the
\ncommunion rail. This is why rock and roll exists on some level.
\nThis is
\n
\nfun<\/i>
\n<\/b> .<\/p>\n
The best way to summarize the Saw Doctors is in their own words:
\n“Born into a repressed, catholic, conservative, small-town,
\nangst-ridden, agrarian, and showband-infested society, we’re trying
\nto preserve the positive elements of our backgrounds and marry them
\nto the sounds which have culturally invaded our milieu through TV,
\nradio, 45s, fast food restaurants, 24 hour petrol stations, and
\nelectric blankets!” Sounds to me a lot like the birth of rock and
\nroll in America. Get back to your roots – go snag some Saw
\nDoctors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":27396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7296],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-38761","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-saw-doctors","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38761"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}