The Rumjacks
Sleepin' Rough

They are sleeping rough, Celtic punk rockers The Rumjacks who just happens to be from Australia but inspired by Scotish and Irish music along with the punk rock of course. This third album from them has an eye-catching artwork that almost begs you to want to check it out, as I have done.

And Celtic punk is probably a good description as it is punk rock with many touches of Irish and Scottish traditional music. Often with lots of tempo and energy, and a great production – the pieces of the puzzle fit snugly together. For a while that is, because after a while the album starts feeling a bit tiresome and repetitive. I think that more variation would have been preferable, of maybe a bit more depth.

The problem with easily accessible music is that it has a tendency to feel repetitive rather fast and you need to add depth to avoid this, and that is not really something these guys do. They get straight to the point without hesitation, kind of the punk rock way I guess and that is what is a little bit detrimental to this album especially considering that it has a rather long playing time for the genre.

In the end we get a dozen good songs, kind of imaginative and in a fairly personal style. All that is good but what I find lacking is that the album’s songs are a lot less interesting than the style in which they are presented. Good but not as special as I hoped it would be.

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