These Boston boys gratuitously misuse images of Smurfs on their album cover. This album has absolutely nothing to with Smurfs, however– it’s a folksy rendering of some traditional Irish songs and tunes, and a couple of original pieces as well.
Basically, I spent 50 cents on this album because I like the copyright-infringing artwork. So sue me! The actual music is fairly ordinary céilí band stuff that gets pretty annoying when the dudes sing. They play some tunes that I’m told will get you run out of town if you play them at Irish sessions, they’re so common and boring.
When there’s singing, I have the opposite of empathy. When they sing “Skibbereen,” a nice depressing ballad about having to leave Ireland during the potato famine, I want to groan, since it means the off-key singer smurf probably ended up here in Boston to annoy us with his annoyingly wobbly voice and cheesy arrangements.
However, whoever did the art direction is awesome. Never mind the fact that the smurfs are sailing from a land off the coast of Delaware to Boston (Ireland is way further north), the musicians have SMURF COUNTERPARTS listed on the back cover. I never associated Smurfs with Ireland, but I forever shall.
One Comment
that is pretty damn awesome