Dropkick Murphys -‘The Boys Are Back’ (Born and Bred Records/Cooperative Music)

The Dropkick Murphys – if you don’t know them they’re a working-class Boston (USA not Lincolnshire) punk band with a bagpipe player who play heavily on Irish imagery and plunder Irish history for many of their songs. Yes, that’s somewhat confusing, but they have managed sales in excess of four million so they’re certainly doing something right!

This single is taken from eighth studio album ‘Signed and Sealed in Blood’ and is pretty much what we’ve come to expect from the band: it’s fast, slow and mid-paced with huge production with big anthemic, raise your fists in the air and sing your heart into and chorus that’s designed to get your adrenalin pumping with simple memorable lyrics, a formula that’ll be reassuringly familiar to their fans.

I wonder if the inspiration for this song was Eire’s Thin Lizzy song ‘The Boys Are Back in Town’? It’s almost 40 years since that was released but if it was I’m sure Phil Lynott would approve, as do withguitars.com. 8.7/10

Rotten Johnny