Vocalist Paul McKenzie traps a ghost in his throat. His hollow rasp chafes into tunefulness, all the while mired in regret. Opening with The Tempest, a shanty that creaks and rolls upon an icy sea. Bagpipes whistle beneath men suffering on the high seas. Such conviction in the performance inspires cries for help on their behalf.
Gimmick aside, Celtic punk does as Celtic punk wants. The Message and My Luck is So Bad spins drinking hall yarns, cracking with headbanging punk rock and rolling highlands of folky sorrow drowning: “My luck is so bad/it can only get better than worse,” McKenzie declares. The Bluenose takes the sea shanty and kicks it into the modern era (You hear the word “submarine.” Heresy!).
Bagpipes whinny about to be sure but guitar leads keep them in check. With a flick of a distortion switch one way of the other, it would sail straight for folk metal’s choppy drink. Libertine corker I Do What I Want locks arms with rollicking good-natured punk and energetic Celtic melody. Easing into a cappella covering ye olde pirate legend Barrett’s Privateers, the boys faithfully ice over your soul as tradition demands it.
Thrills of boyhood adventure charges though the disc. Its freewheeling spirit is tempered by a trickle of regret through its veins. As pipes at the end of the disc fade away, Westwinds feels like a huge night out. Awesome in retrospect, sure. With heads pounding and shards of light piercing the morning, it takes a lot of coffee and convincing to do it all again, again, and again.
BY TOM VALCANIS
Best Track: The Tempest
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: FLOGGING MOLLY, THE POGUES, ALESTORM
In A Word: Salty
