The Pogues - Pogue Mahone


Darned if we didn't just keep on rotating, i turned like 7,000 years old today. Kidding, i'm 41 now. Did you know that 41 is an incredibly boring number. Yes, it's on a bunch of lists of types of numbers, but those types of numbers are moderately useless. So, because Sum 41 feels way too easy, let's listen to the only album i know for sure i received as a birthday present. Here's the actual last album by The Pogues, Pogue Mahone. 

Critics didn't like it, but since it's the rock-bandification of the Irish phrase they got their name from, who cares? That phrase, by the way, is "kiss my ass."

Shane MacGowan is nowhere near this album, he got fired two albums ago. Doesn't matter, it's still completely enjoyable Irish folk rock, and they all called it quits afterward. Luckily, not before covering one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs, When the Ship Comes In.

So, there's a distinction we have to make. This isn't punk rock from Ireland, this is Irish music played by punks. For 9/10ths of the Pogues' career, they were lauded, but by 1995 when this came out everyone had flipped and thought they were beyond passé. I believe the phrase "new age" was bandied about in a derogatory manner. I disagree, just because the whistles would fit on a Yanni or Kitaro album doesn't mean it's bad. Actually, there's a lot more Zydeco than New Age to my ears. It's not bad, it's lovely and sweet. This is the other side of the farthing from Boomtown Rats. Just because they aren't falling down drunk or bleeding/vomiting all over the studio, and you can understand what they're singing, doesn't make it suck. 

I think everyone hated it because it's a hopeful album. These are "love will get us through it" songs, as opposed to the more familiar punk nihilism. It's also all over the place production wise, but that doesn't bother most people. I'll admit i was "meh" on it for a long time, but it has really grown on me over the years. I can see how it was totally out of place in the mid 90s, but i think it holds up pretty well, and even at the end The Pogues were better than "the average pub band" everyone tried to downplay. At the very least, if you just absolutely detested Shane's incomprehensible toothless garble, this will sound positively articulate.

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