Click to listen to the Dropkick Murphys' "Memorial Day"

"No mercy, no quarter," bellow the Dropkick Murphys in the raucous opener of their seventh album, a phrase that sums up their philosophy of music (and drinking). The Boston Irish-punk septet never met a shout-along chorus they didn't want to crash into, with a bagpipe tooting along for an extra shot of old-world poignancy. Going Out in Style, a theme album about a fictional Irish-American named Cornelius Larkin, veers into tears-in-your-pint sentimentality on ballads like "1953." But reservations disappear at the sound of full-fathom burner "Peg o' My Heart," a sweet, boozy love song with guest vocals by another guy who takes no quarter: Bruce Springsteen.

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“Ambling Alp”

The "Ambling Alp" was the nickname of the six-and-a-half-foot-tall Primo Carnera. Though the song is named after the Italian-born 1930s heavyweight champion, Yeasayer are actually paying tribute to boxing legend Joe Louis with this first-person psychedelic dance-rock tune. “I was always interested in writing a song that had boxing mythology in it,” Yeasayer’s Chris Keating said. “It’s pretty fascinating: There were so many amazing characters, and it was so closely entwined with 20th century history.” Yeaseyer also invokes German champ Max Schmeling and hints at the historical significance placed on the historic bouts between the Nazi-era boxer and the African-American Louis.