Saturday, October 16, 2010

Music Review: The Pogues -- If I Should Fall From Grace With God

Article first published as Music Review: The Pogues — If I Should Fall From Grace With God on Blogcritics. Another in my Dark Elf Essential Performances series.

Sure'n, here's a bit of the blarney to wet yer whistle, me boyo:
But rather than focus on Shane MacGowan’s manic insistence on assuming the mantle of the stereotypical tortured Irish artist in search of a besotted Gaelic muse — following, like Brendan Behan before him, a wanton path to an early death — let us instead focus on the music. Because, after all, MacGowan is not dead yet, and perhaps he, along with Keith Richards and cockroaches, will survive global warming, nuclear detonations, or whatever disaster will consume the rest of humanity.

Enjoy!

1 comment:

Jet Jaguar said...

I've honestly always preferred "Rum, Sodomy and The Lash" by a long ways. To me, the songwriting is better, and the performances have more energy, plus it holds together phenomenally well as an album. For that matter, I'd even venture to say I like "Red Roses For Me" more, especially if you include the fantastic bonus tracks on the reissue.
That being said, "If I Should Fall From Grace With God" is a fine album, and its standout tracks are as good as anything out there. More than anything, Steve Lillywhite's godawful production and the wierdly restrained performances just hinder my ability to enjoy the damn thing. Still, I'd gladly contend that "A pair of Brown Eyes" is a much, much better song than "Fairytale of New York", and "Sally MacLennane" and "The Sickbed of Cuchullaine" are better celtic punk than anything that came after.
Still, The Pogues. Great band. I'd reccomend you check out Gogol Bordello immediately, they have similar instrumentation, energy and drinking habits to The Pogues. Also, they're the best live act going by a country mile.