Where do you start with this one?
The sleeve states “folk punk our only hope?”
An intriguing question and certainly one to ponder over the thirty six minute running time of the disc. Is it folk? Well, just a little but with a punky attitude and a heavy ska undertone, plus shouty singalong lyrics compete with choppy guitars.
It feels that the band have taken all of the music they love (even the dodgy stuff you keep secret from your mates) and thrown it at the wall. Whatever stuck was included. It is possible to pick out The Specials, Pogues, Dropkick Murphys, Squeeze, Chili Peppers, Les Negress Vertes, Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Metallica in the mix. That Los Salvadores choose to wear their influences so openly is commendable. That they can incorporate them so joyously into their own sound is miraculous. It would be so easy to allow this album to descend into farce but instead the band pull it all together into a wonder musical mix.
It takes me back to drunken nights in the Camden Town & Country Club at the fag end of the 80’s when it seemed The Pogues had moved in. Every other night offered up another bunch of goodtime ramshackle folkies skulling pints of the black stuff and leading the pissed up hordes in mass singalongs. The bonus track on the lead out of the disc could have been recorded in those heady days.
The best recommendation I can give to this disc is that I would now love to see Los Salvadores in the flesh. I am left with the impression that the live experience would be a riotous affair which would meld The Men They Couldn’t Hang, The Pogues and The Dropkick Murphys. And I bet they’d be tasty in a ruck too.
If you like music loud but with a melody this is one for you. Just buy it. It’s a perfect lads’ post-pub ‘back to mine’ soundtrack.