There is something about seeing the Pogues live and in the flesh last month that makes the prospect of listening to any other Celtic punk outfit seem like reading a newspaper under water - a soggy, unappealing mess if ever there was one.

If anyone can get me over my slump, surely it's Flogging Molly! Thanks to Float, Flogging Molly has floated to the top echelons of the charts. They landed the number four spot on Billboard recently, marking the highest chart position ever achieved within the Irish American genre.

Dave King, a veteran of late eighties hair metal bands like Fastway, is well able for the screeching that comes with the territory when you are fronting a paddy punk band. He is joined by Dennis Casey (guitar), Matthew Hensley (accordion), Nathen Maxwell (bass), Bridget Regan (violin, tin whistle, pipes) Robert Schmidt (mandolin, banjo), and George Schwindt (drums) to create a furious punk rock ruckus on the rocky road to Dublin.

Float begins with "Requiem for a Dying Song," and the band barely lets its foot off the gas for the entire ride. Furious metal-on-metal riffs, relentless rolling percussion and rapid fire banjo breaks converge to make a boiling, angry stew that gets the right amount of bile from the rebellious lyrics.

"The days may come but the years may go/so take good care of your freedom, they'll never know," howls King on "The Lightning Storm."

On "(No More) Paddy's Lament," he comes ready for a brawl. "Wipe the blood from your lip from the flesh of your hand," he snarls, dismissing "the tears from a Paddy's lament."

Clearly, King's recent move from the hustle of California to the pastoral hills of his native Wexford has done little to soften this graying punk. Thank God for small favors!

"If it didn't have mandolin, accordion, fiddle and whistle, it would be punk rock, and if it didn't have guitar, bass and drums, it would be traditional Irish music," King says. "You can't be bothered being labeled."

The only label you can put on Float is that it's the same Flogging Molly you've always loved. That's good for their long-standing (and numerous) fans, but there is not a lot of artistic stretching between this album and their last one, Whiskey on a Sunday, which was a live album that served as a sort of retrospective.

I am as big of a fan of Flogging Molly as the next man, but even I think the praise that Float has been getting is a bit of a stretch. Whoever it was at Alternative Press magazine that wrote that Float was "one of the most important CDs of the year, if not the decade" never listened to 2002's classic Drunken Lullabies.

Indeed, there is nothing nearly as salty as "Swagger" or as sweet as "If I Ever Leave This World Alive," two choice cuts from this classic collection.

"Don't sink the boat that you built to keep afloat," sings King on the title track. Based on the safe bets he plays on Float, King seems to be cautioning against sticking one's neck out.

It might be the kiss of death to most bands, but it seems to suit Flogging Molly fans just fine. Sheer numbers do not lie!

For more information, log onto FloggingMolly.com or float over to iTunes and download the disc.