Think Like A Key 2025
Anti-Inflammatory
What’s another quarter-century for an eternity-scoring ensemble? Eirean heroes return to secure a cure for our times.
Living in the past seemed to be par for the course for this collective. Their first two records, 1969’s “Kip Of The Serenes” and “Heavy Petting” from 1970, found a source for the Dubliners’ melodies in the bountiful soil of local folklore, and though 1997’s “Alternative Medicine” ploughed the same field, that platter failed to steady their existence, because the band’s reunion didn’t last, and though it took them another decade to come back and stay, there was no follow-up album. Still, the connoisseurs’ interest in the Irish troupe never faded and, invigorated by the success of recently uncovered "Radio Sessions" tapes, the veterans decided to try again and deliver what should have appeared some twenty-five years ago.
Short, spanning a little more than half an hour, but sweet, with the title hinting at the continuation of its predecessor’s theme, the numbers of “Anti-Inflammatory” – which feature Tim Booth, Ivan Pawle and Tim Goulding from the old line-up and Joe Thoma who’s been working with them since 1980 – perfectly capture the enchantment of time. It’s not, however, a nostalgic journey, with just one piece, the breezy “Back In The Day” that could make a magnificent finale if not for the jovially jazzy “Vienna” that sees Golding wind things down on his grand piano, proposing a glance over the shoulder; instead, it’s as freshly sounding as the ethereally solemn “Morning Song” and ruminative opener “Up With The Lark” suggest in their juxtaposition of dewiness and dewy-eyedness. Communal spirit flying high in the Booth-voiced “Baby Bunting” where Powle’s acoustic strum, Thoma’s fiddle and and Brian Casey’s electric guitar and bass blend to euphoric effect, the songs’ flow is life-affirming and entertaining, especially when the organ-oiled and riff-laden, yet summer-soft, “Rosenallis Two-step” introduces motorcycle rides and illegal fairy dust to this aural funfair.
Still, while the jocular “Drive ’em Down” turns reminiscences into vaudevillian swagger, “Sulán” offers instrumental reverie, and while the philosophical “Like Water Like Wind” unfolds the majestic umbrella of balladry to shelter the listener from feeling too frisky, “Murmuration” channels the wonder of seasons’ change. It’s not an adventure, then; it’s a return to old ways with a young mindset. Worthy of the long wait, “Anti-Inflammatory” is, indeed, a remedy for folks’ soul.
*****
