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Written by Jason Green Wednesday, 23 February 2011 16:38

The album finds the band celebrating their twentieth anniversary by returning to more familiar territory, getting in the occasional political dig while concentrating most of their energy on telling stories from the streets of New York City with their patented mix of traditional Irish music and American rock n’ roll.

On their last album, 2008’s Iraq, Black 47 worked wonders by crafting an emotionally affecting political rock album that shunned pedantic posturing in favor of powerful personal tales told from the viewpoint of both the frontline and the home front. Based on the title, you might assume that Bankers and Gangsters would find the Irish-American sextet trying for a sequel by tackling the recession and the era of bank bailouts and failed mortgages. Fortunately, the album finds the band celebrating their twentieth anniversary by returning to more familiar territory, getting in the occasional political dig while concentrating most of their energy on telling stories from the streets of New York City with their patented mix of traditional Irish music and American rock n’ roll.