Saint Patrick’s Day is just around the corner. Soon, people will be drinking Guinness like it was water, everyone will be wearing green, and the music of Celtic punk bands like Flogging Molly, Dropkick Murphys, and The Pogues will fill the air. However, there is one band that will surely be overlooked: The Tossers.

Forming in 1993, predating well-known acts like Dropkick Murphys (est. 1996) and Flogging Molly (est. 1997), this Chicago based band show that they still can compete with their younger and more successful counterparts on their ninth album (and fifth with Victory Records), Smash the Windows.

If you’re looking for your Saint Patrick’s Day soundtrack for this year, then you’ve found your album. Smash the Windows is packed to the brim with 18 tracks that are fueled with nothing but pure 100% Irish pride and several cans of Guinness.

The album can be easily split into several different categories: slow or easy listening songs (“The Town Where I Was Born” and “A Ghra Mo Chroi”), traditional Irish music (“Danny Boy” and “Lots of Drops of Brandy”), drinking songs (“Drinkin All the Day” and “Whiskey”), fast songs (“Erin Go Bragh” and “The Horses”), and dancing songs (“Smash the Windows” and the instrumental track “Humors of Chicago”). Smash the Windows has everything for everyone.

Smash the Windows’s energy rages on hard like the spirit of Ireland. Each of the 18 songs is filled with amazing storytelling (minus “Humors of Chicago”) such as “Erin Go Bragh,” which talks about the Irish community in America (“Uncle Sam, as you know, changed our names long ago/ When we got to America’s door/ And we slaved and we cowed/ And we begged and we bowed/ For a dime and a place on the floor”). “1969” sings about the 1969 Northern Ireland riots (“Long ago, far away, far across the sea/ There were those in Ireland who had marched for equality/ So that everyone would know/ Everyone would know/ That civil rights are something now/ That everyone should know”), and “The Horses,” which is about, well, the lyrics are pretty damn obvious (“Twas on a lovely day in spring/ When all the roses were in bloom/ And the sun was shining down upon all the new / Birds in their plume/ When the horses came to town/ Out to the races big and small/ And I bet it all on a horse called Astoirinto/ Win and to take it all/ I gambled on the horses, and I won”).

However, there is one major flaw on this album; it grows stale over time. Much like a fun night on the town, the album is amazing at first, but once it gets near the midway part of the album, the hangover starts to kick in, and near the end of the album, we just hope the hangover stops so that we can function again. Smash the Windows sounds like every other album The Tossers have released. T. Duggins’s vocals are amazing on Smash the Windows, sounding as excellent as ever. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s an awful record. It just has its flaws here and there. Smash the Windows is what one should expect from an album from The Tossers. It’s a fun album to listen to while getting shitfaced with your friends or roommates on the evening of Saint Patrick’s Day. Cheers to you, The Tossers.

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