(Editor’s note: The cover art featured above is not
\nthe original artwork that was on the 1988 release.)<\/p>\n
With the release of U2’s latest album just 24 hours away, let’s
\nturn our attention to undoubtedly the best band to ever come out of
\nIreland.<\/p>\n
That’s right – forget about U2. I’m talking about The Pogues.
\nTheir 1988 release
\nIf I Should Fall From Grace With God<\/i> is their best album,
\nand one of the best albums I have ever heard in all my years of
\ncritiquing music.<\/p>\n
I first heard about these guys from “Buzz,” a religion teacher
\nat my high school (and still one of the hippest cats I have ever
\nmet). He described these guys as a drunken, raucous Irish folk
\nband. Indeed, one can imagine Shane MacGowan and crew sloshed out
\nof their minds in the studio doing this one.<\/p>\n
But the musicianship of these guys is downright incredible, and
\nMacGowan’s slurred growls and whoops of joy make this album a
\npleasure to listen to. It truly sounds like they’re having fun –
\nand that, kids, is half the battle.<\/p>\n
The title track sounds like a typical Irish folk dancing number
\n– hell, within ten seconds it makes the listener want to get up and
\ntry some “Riverdance”-esque move that will end in a 911 call.
\nDarryl Hunt’s bass work and the drum work of Andrew Rankin
\nespecially stand out -through the whole album.<\/p>\n
My personal favorite on this one is “Bottle Of Smoke,” an
\nobscene but engaging story of a man winning a big payoff at the
\nhorse races. There are times it’s a good thing Island included a
\nlyric sheet on this one, ’cause it’s almost impossible for you to
\nunderstand what MacGowan is saying.<\/p>\n
“Fairytale Of New York,” featuring Kirsty MacColl on lead
\nvocals, is the best-known track on this one, and it is a pretty
\ntrack – how can anyone not like a lyric such as: “You scumbag, you
\nmaggot \/ You cheap lousy faggot \/ Happy Christmas, your arse \/ I
\npray God it’s our last.” But an even prettier track on this album
\nis “Thousands Are Sailing,” which looks at coming to America from
\nthe eyes of an Irish immigrant.<\/p>\n
And just when you think
\nIf I Should Fall From Grace With God<\/i> is going to be an
\nall-Irish album, you’re slapped in the face with a Irish-Turkish
\nmelody (“Turkish Song Of The Damned”) and a Spanish party number
\n(“Fiesta”).<\/p>\n
There is not a single bad track on this album – even the closing
\nnumber, “Worms,” probably a last-minute joke they decided to do,
\nhas a haunting feel that makes the song work. Sadly, the band never
\nproduced another work on this level – MacGowan was eventually
\nkicked out of the band for personal reasons, and the re-tooled
\nlineup never quite made it, recently calling it a day.<\/p>\n
This album may not take the place of the Irish Rovers on St.
\nPatrick’s Day, but
\nIf I Should Fall From Grace With God<\/i> is more than just an
\nalbum of Irish music – it is a rock, folk, dance,
\ndrink-yourself-stupid, world music album – and it’s one of the best
\n$15 you can spend your money on. If I was going to be stranded on a
\ndesert island, this is the album that would be in my personal tape
\ndeck as the plane was going down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5670],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-35546","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-pogues","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35546"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35546"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}