Dropkick Murphys have spent their career singing on behalf of the working man. The Meanest of Times finds them lightly updating traditional Irish laments on tracks like "(F)lannigan's Ball" and "Fairmount Hill," proving that those songs only needed quicker tempos and some thrashing electric guitar to seamlessly resonate in the modern age. The band also add plenty of their own defiant blue-collar hymns to the songbook, delivering mandolin-lacquered punk on "The State of Massachusetts" and starting a bagpipe mosh pit on "God Willing.”