Ireland has changed utterly since the Saw Doctors first enthralled us with their hick schtick, doing for rural Ireland what rap acts did for Compton, but now they’re back with their sixth studio album and sounding as vibrant and celebratory of all things real and Irish as ever. Indeed, Davy Carton’s vocals benefit here from a sharper focus and turning down to about nine, allowing the band, including Waterboy Anthony Thistlethwaite on bass, more space to reveal a surprisingly introspective side.
The rueful and nostalgic ‘Out For A Smoke’ is a Springsteen-esque work-out. They achieve an impressive blend of chiming guitars and Hammondish organ on ‘Me Without You’, while ‘Your Guitar’ shows a tougher musical side, with its declamatory vocals calling out the names of chords, suggesting the Docs have lost none of their rich rural humour. Meanwhile ‘Vulnerable’ is exactly as its title suggests, eschewing the brash machismo of old.
Occasionally the focus slips. It probably wasn’t a great idea to go all philosophical on ‘I’ll Say Goodnight’, and there’s an argument that a few concessions to contemporary musical innovations might be a good idea at this stage of The Sawdoctors' game. But they’ve stepped away from the rowdiness of yore to take on a subtler folk-rock approach, and it works. So, while The Saw Doctors may not be as vital to the gestalt as the Arctic Monkeys as we enter 2006, they’ll probably last a lot longer.