Sir Reg
A Sign of the Times

Irish-Swedish Sir Reg has been quite highly praised by the bloggers/reviewers into celtic punk rock, or folk punk rock or whatever it is called the celtic influenced punk rock music that they play along with bands like Dropkick Murphys and so on. I have found only praise for this album when I was browsing the web, which might indicate that it is an amazing album but looking at how trustworthy the sources for a casual enjoyer of rock music it is not that clear however. It is mostly in blogs focused on this kind of music and other obscure music bloggers mainly that has reviewed the album to good merit it seems, sure there are some webzines as well but just one or two and non of them any wider or widespread either, so it is not as clear cut as one might think they are those good reviews but I think that one thing can be concluded from those and that is that if you are a fan of celtic styled punk rock you will enjoy this album.

Celtic styled punk rock with irish accented vocalist and a violinist to create that spice of celtic folk music in their otherwise very simplistically styled punk rock, could be a short description of their music. Because besides the quite prominent celtic influences, this is an ordinary modern punk rock album, fast paced, typically produced, slightly melodic, typical vocalist although with an irish accent, nothing earth shattering at all in the musical style. Ordinary modern punk with celtic influences, no fussing about or experimenting on this album, unless you count the celtic element as experimenting or fussing of course. This is an album of eleven tracks and around 42 minutes of playing time on which the variation is about as high as reading a notebook you haven’t started writing in yet.

I would not say that Sir Reg is bad in any way, neither would I say that they are good. Their music is straightforward and simple enough to be catchy and easily accessible, but it lacks imagination (unless you count the celtic) and it feels rather static to listen to the entire album. The fact is that I was certain that this album was around 90 minutes long before I started writing this review text, because when listening it feels like it never ends and just goes on and on and on and on and on almost forever until it ends and you have completely forgotten what you just spent so long time listening to. But sure it is alright for what it is I guess, the reviewers certainly points in that direction so if you are a fan of the genre you probably don’t really need to be bothered with what I say. If you are someone else you will probably see it more similar to how I see it.

I once again turn on my fellow reviewers and say that they are wrong, this album is not brilliant, some of those guys even had it as one of the top albums of 2011 which is completely unfathomable unless you have only heard this album and two more released in that year. My biggest problem with this is that you cannot really hide the fact that the music is suffering from a lack of imagination and that it sounds the same as more or less any punk rock band out there by adding a violin and an irish accent and call it celtic folk punk, it is still the same kind of music but slightly hidden under a violin and someone who pronounce words in a stupid way. The last might be a bit harsh, I think irish accents are quite funny to be honest but it sounds a bit ridiculous to sing in that fashion.

So in the end it is an album I do not recommend, it is rather boring and a typical punk rock album but dressed in a fancy suit to appear better. It looks good on the outside though and if you like the genre it seems to be good as well. But if this album is a sign of the times for Sir Reg I would say that their time is up and their downfall is already overdue.