Street Dogs – Fading American Dream

There are some bands out there that are consistent throughout their entire career. They never dip low or soar high in the popularity charts, instead they stay steady and follow the course releasing solid albums for their steady fan base to devour and enjoy. The albums are never spectacular nor the best releases of the year, but they are always entertaining, well written and just simply good. By the looks of it, Street Dogswill end up being one of those bands. With their third album in a four year career have stayed the course and released yet another album that will be well received by fans and critics without stepping out and breaking any boundaries.

Fading American Dream is an album about the trials and tribulations of the common people. An album about the worker’s struggle and the power in an union. An album about selling a war and fighting a war. An album about the american dream and an album soaked in sincerity. Front man, and Dropkick Murphys founder, Mike McColgan uses his beer soaked voice to sing sing-along tales with a street-punk and Celtic-punk background supporting him. His voice comes through with a sense of maturity as he sings semi-autobiographical songs about being at war, which he is able to do it convincingly considering he is a former fireman and a Gulf War veteran who served as part of an artillery crew in Iraq during Operations desert Storm and Desert Shield. This make songs about a soldier’s last letter home (Final Transmission) that much more emotional. Of course, he’s not all serious and he’s able to bring it back down to earth with songs like Tobe’s Got A Drinking Problem and Fatty.

Featuring guest appearances by members of The Pogues and Flogging Molly, The Street Dogs have a delicately Irish sound laced throughout the album, but with a serious kick to it. Songs like the two minute Sell Your Lies is knee-deep in street punk speed while Shards of Life uses James Fearnley’s accordion to push the song forward. The songs are all catchy enough to get the listener singing along after only a few listens, and you can’t help but pull in comparisons to early Dropkick Murphys material either.

Really, there’s nothing wrong with the album. You can listen to it repeatedly without it becoming aggravating. There’s a mix of speeds throughout the album, from the slow introspectiveFinal Transmission to the quicker Not Without A Purpose; and a good mix of topics, from the serious to the not-so serious. The album won’t change your life, won’t be in many year ends lists, and won’t be talked about for years; but it’s still entertaining enough to garner multiple listens – and sometimes that alone is enough to make an album worthy for purchase.