CD Review: “People Are Mad” by Sean Griffin

For a guy who’s spent 25 years fronting Irish punk band The Ruffians, Sean Griffin’s solo debut is surprisingly tender in places—though not so tender that somebody won’t eventually spill a beer on it. People Are Mad finds the Kingston songwriter ricocheting between folk-punk rave-ups, bruised garage rock, and whiskey-soaked confessionals with the energy of a last-call argument that somehow turns philosophical around 1:17am.

The title is accurate. Everybody does seem mad lately. Griffin responds not with detached irony but with songs full of working-class ache, romantic desperation, and the stubborn belief that music might still hold a room together for four minutes at a time. “Be My Girl” starts as a lonely-guy plea and blooms into something surprisingly huge-hearted, propelled by jangling guitars and the kind of hook that sounds built for shouting back at the stage with strangers. Produced by Kenny Siegal with an admirably unvarnished live feel, People Are Mad lands somewhere between the Pogues, garage rock, and the kind of East Coast dive-bar mythology.

This article appears in June 2026.