I personally really like "Pogue Mahone" & also don't think that "Waiting For Herb" is as bad as some people would have you believe. Ok, so both albums don't quite reach the same giddy heights that the bands earlier material did but they are both worthy of your attention. For any Pogues fans who have yet to hear these 2 albums - go out & buy them them. Even with a couple of duff tracks, both of these albums should be in your collection.

I think PM is a hugely underrated album. If it was by anybody else it would get fine reviews. But how do you follow the first three Pogues albums, or " Red rum for Grace " as I call them, three of the greatest and richest albums ever made ? The answer is, you can't. But PM has much more in common with those albums than " ...Herb " and even the last two Shane albums in my opinion.
On first listen the song that sold me was " Anniversary ". A beautiful, old school Irish ballad type. " Living in a world...", " When the ship comes in ", brilliant " Red roses..." type romp, with Dylan's fantastic lyrics. Almost as good as Shane's ! " Amadie " and " Bright lights " are fuckin' rave ups, raw and in yer face, how the Pogues should be. Two that stalled things a bit for me at first were " Oretown " and " 4 O'clock in the morning ". Now I love them. The low whistle on the former is brilliant, almost " Lonesome boatman " territory. I love the clean banjo picking on " 4 o'clock... " Tosspint " with it's Dubliners style banjo is fantastic. The most underrated track for me is the beautiful " Point mirabeau ". Brilliant vocal by Spider I think, great accordion and piano.
Where the album falls down slightly is the other tracks. " Love you...." is a fine track, without being a great song but for me, it doesn't fit with the rootsy Irish / Americana feel of the album. As somebody said, it's a little too pop. Not bad by any means though. I like " Where that love's been gone " but it's not great really and neither is " The sun and the moon ", although some like it. I would urge any Pogues fan longing for some more of the earlier stuff to get this. As somebody else said somewhere, " you don't need it but you just might enjoy it ".

Was listening to Pogue Mahone a bit and I really think it's an underrated album. I think it's quite solid actualy. Would love to hear a song or two added to the setlist here. What does everyone else think?

[quote="Shillaly Bro"]They both have moments, but IMO when compared to the better Pogues albums, they pale in comparison. When a band loses someone of the caliber of Shane, its difficult to keep the quality of songsmanship, never mind his voice.[/quote]

I agree - on Waiting for Herb there are some "okay"-songs but for me the only stand-out track is "Haunting", both lyrically and musically. But I never liked "Sitting on top of the world" or "Modern world" much.

Pogue Mahone does better in my opinion - although they could´ve left out "Where that love´s been gone", "The sun and the moon" and "Love you till the end". They are really too pop music.

They both have moments, but IMO when compared to the better Pogues albums, they pale in comparison. When a band loses someone of the caliber of Shane, its difficult to keep the quality of songsmanship, never mind his voice.

I also like modern world from waiting for herb. The song in particular the background keyboards and song structure remind me of another song by another band and I dont remember which one yet.

When I listened to it first month, I liked those two the most too.

Now I appreciate Anniversary, Oretown pretty similarily.

But there are really just few tracks I wouldn´t like - How come and Love you till the end.

In particular when the ship comes in and tosspint.

Well, some parts are similar, yes.

And, if we consider it very similar (well, I don´t, but if you do, fine), add much more (I think) interesting lyrics.

Listening to pogue mahone album for the first time. Im amazed how much most of the songs sound like flogging molly. I like flogging molly because of their music i dont care much for the singer and now i know where they got their sound from! Its a fantastic album, its everything I loved about flogging molly but with spider singing ! Fantastico

[quote="philipchevron"]First, write your song.

Happy new year to you too shipbuilder.[/quote]

That's not my job is it? :roll: I'm a mere mortal with an occasional line in bad poetry and tuneless whistle playing! :oops: You've proven what you can do and please Sir can we have some more?

First, write your song.

Happy new year to you too shipbuilder.

[quote]And yet, I didn't like these records much at the time.[/quote]

Funny isn't it? Some music just isn't 'right' for you at a particular time of life. Happy New Year Mr. C - wish you all the best for 2007 and I await a new Pogues lp full of new songs with baited breath!

I'm about to record a short piece for Dave Fanning this afternoon which will go out on his RTE radio show tonight as a tribute to David Bowie on his 60th birthday. Again I find myself most absorbed by - and will discuss - the Diamond Dogs - David Live - Young Americans - Station to Station period of his career, the most fascinating two year segement I have ever studied of [i]anyone's[/i] work. And yet, I didn't like these records much at the time.

"I think in fairness, to say that "in terms of songwriting" they've never recovered since Peace And Love is an opinion you're of course entitled to, but it does something of a disservice to the highlights of ALL three subsequent albums. Go and listen to them again. And again. And again."

I tried - believe me I did but it just didn't work for me and still doesn't.

"Furthermore, to call the Popes material "bearable" seems very bizarre indeed - granted, Shane's two albums with the Popes may not match up the holy triumvirate that is the Pogues first three albums, but there are more than a few songs on there which could never be described in such throwaway terms as "bearable". Have you actually listened to those albums? "Song With No Name", "Donegal Express", "Paddy Rolling Stone", "Ceilidh Cowboy", "St John Of Gods", "Aisling"... bearable????"

Yep - I've got them and listened them and will quantify my use of 'bearable'. I mean that in comparison the the first three lps and the Poguetry lp. I remember hearing RRFM and RSATL for the first time in 1986 and my life changed from that moment on. I was 15, growing up in rural Lincolnshire and the Pogues opened a window to another world for me for which I am eternaly grateful. I remember waiting and waiting for new tunes and freaking when I heard The Body of an American and Rainy Night in Soho on Poguetry. The wait for the third lp was agony and I can still see my mate John Lightfoot bringing it in to our school classroom now after he'd been in to town (Gainsborough) to buy it at dinner time. When I heard the first bars of the opening I had a rush of blood that I've rarely had since.

I think I'm tied up in that early material both musically and emotionally - as you all know, our teenage years are our most tempestous, and I equate the Pogues' music from 1984 - 1989 with some of most formative experiences (first beer, overnight patry, snog, shag, etc, etc). They also lead me to Peel and another world of music ... and I still listen to the Men They Couldn't Hang as well. I was dissapointed when I heard Peace and Love and they were pretty ropey at Reading in 1989. Shane just couldn't sing - why write such beautiful words if no-one can understand them?

I lost my way with them from about 89 - 93 ish then 'rediscovered' the early material - even though it had always been there in the background I found a new resonance in the songs and lyrics and felt that I understood a lot more than I had in my younger days. I did go and see the Popes in 1989 on St. Paddy's night at the Forum in London and was dissapointed by Shane and the band. It was 'old Pogues faves by numbers' and I couldn't hear a word of singing. My friend, an arch Pogue fanatic since '84 got in to a ruck cos he shouted out that Shane was a drunken embarassment and the band were a bunch of sycophantic 'rockers'. I didn't entirely agree with him but it was not good to see.

And of course, given the inordinate amount of complete and utter crap that is passed off as music I would take my least favourite Popes song over virtually anything else.

"That said, I am compelled to agree with your final sentence - I'd cut off my right arm (that's the most useful one :wink: ) for even ONE new song.[/quote]"

So okay then Pogues - we've paid our money for the cd re-issues and re-re issues and books and gig tickets (dead cheap!) and t-shirts and we love you to bits - pull out your fingers and write some new songs then!