To coincide with their current US tour, pirate rockers Alestorm have dropped a 5 song EP following up 2022s excellent Seventh Rum of a Seventh Rum album.
You know exactly what you are getting with Alestorm at this point in their prolifically fun discography while and that does not change with the short little EP, it feels a bit….filler-ish?
There’s the title track which frankly feels a bit too commercial and formulaic, despite including Patty Gurdy on vocals and Hurdy Gurdy for the chorus. It’s clearly a quickly written track to get to EP out for the tour and is one of the weakest songs of the band’s entire discography.
“Uzbekistan” continues the band’s country-themed shanty’s (“Mexico”, “Come to Brazil”, “Magyarország”) and has a fun little techno/disco break, an element the band is getting increasingly comfortable using.
We then get 2 appropriately fun seafaring covers, the EPs highlight, a cover of The Arrogant Worms’ “The Last Saskatchewan Pirate”, which organically feels like an Alestorm song due to its maritime gait, and the cover of Ian Taylor’s “Sea Shanty” is a short instrumental number.
The EP rounds out with “Cock”, a short filthy little ditty in line with “Fucked with An Anchor”, but it still adds to the disappointing ‘filler’ vibe of the entire EP that seems to be rushed out to coincide with the current tour. I’m sure (I hope) the next album will be back on par.
