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| cd version |
release date: Aug. 1985
format: cd
[album rate: 4,5 / 5] [4,33]
producer: Elvis Costello
label: Stiff Records - nationality: England, UK
Tracklist: 1. "The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn" (5 / 5) - 2. "The Old Main Drag" (4 / 5) - 3. "Wild Cats of Kilkenny" (4,5 / 5) - 4. "I'm a Man You Don't Meet Everyday" (3,5 / 5) - 5. "A Pair of Brown Eyes" (4,5 / 5) - 6. "Sally MacLennane" (5 / 5) - 7. "Dirty Old Town" (3,5 / 5) - 8. "Jesse James" (3,5 / 5) - 9. "Navigator" (3,5 / 5) - 10. "Billy's Bones" (4 / 5) - 11. "The Gentleman Soldier" (3 / 5) - 12. "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" (4,5 / 5)
2nd studio album by The Pogues following less than a year after the fine debut. By now the band has expanded to a septet with the addition of guitarist Philip Chevron. This is the best combination of folk(lore), celtic rock, and punk rock I have ever come across. If many artists find the follow-up to a promissing debut a hard and difficult move, which has often resulted in poorer albums, The Pogues really got everything right here, as I think it's simply their best ever album. Elvis Costello produced the album and I think, he succeeded pretty good in finding the right combo of Celtic folk tradition and folk punk energy, and then he was perhaps also the right choice for the simple reason that he wasn't a great producer but instead focused on not tampering with what worked so fine. In the end, he made sure to record the music as is - live in the studio without traditional post-production.
Red Roses for Me was interesting and is by no means a bad album but on this one they simply turned up the punk rock element, which was more subdued on the debut paying more attention to folk and celtic rock in a traditional perspective. Shane MacGowan was on top and wrote and sang at the peak of his career also distinguishing this from the debut by having less traditional songs and more tracks composed by MacGowan, who actually had been foreseen as an upcoming author long before making music. Much like the band's music is filled with references to life on the edge, in the shadows, with streams of alcohol and a life at an everlasting party, Shane is infamous for having lived life in the fast lane and soon became notorious for his alcohol abuse as well as his lifestyle with no regrets, or at least that's how it seemed.
This very album remains their manifest and legacy, I think, and it's enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". A 2004 cd-reissue of the album also contains the 4-track ep Poguetry in Motion (1986) as bonus tracks.
Highly recommended.
[ allmusic.com, Sounds 4,5 / 5, Mojo, Q Magazine 5 / 5 stars ]
1985 Favourite releases: 1. Ry Cooder Paris, Texas (OST) - 2. The Smiths Meat Is Murder - 3. The Pogues Rum, Sodomy and the Lash
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| org. album cover |
