Black 47 - Elvis Murphy's Green Suede Shoes (2005)
With Elvis Murphy's Green Suede Shoes Black 47 has flied out to the warning track. Their last two wonderful studio CDs, 2000's Trouble In The Land and last year's New York Town , were grand slam home runs so it is unfortunate that the band's latest falls short. Yet we shouldn't complain. Even Joe Dimaggios's hitting streak had to come to an end. The problems are two-fold. Larry Kirwan's voice, which is often far from pleasant, was less troublesome on this disc's two predecessors because he compensated for it nicely. The second, and even bigger problem, is musically the band seems to have run out of ideas. While Kirwan is once again lyrically great, (The man can spin a yarn as well as Bob Dylan) the arrangements have become stale and repetitive. This CD's "Uncle Jim" is a dead ringer for their earlier "Czechoslovakia," and at certain points, "The Day They Set Jim Larkin Free" could be mistaken for their classic ...