The Medusa Fora

I just through the record on 20 minutes ago, and I was thinking about how much of a great album it really is.....Over the years I've never really listened to it as much as the others, and now I'm wondering why!
Although their may be one or two tracks I don't exactly love (Blue Heaven for one) I really think that this is a great Pogues record with a "Team-Effort" where everybody got their chance for a tune....What do you guys think??

I think it's one of their best!

Overall , it's a great Album.

Just love 'Night Train to Lorca' and 'London you're a Lady'

Not so keen on 'My Blue Heaven' (Probably me least favourite Pogues Track) but interesting to read the background of the song.

And Gridlock is a great 'getting ready to go on the lash' tune!!

I agree with you all. It is a great album, i actually like that they explored different types of music and styles on the album. I really like the vibe and the lyrics to U.S.A. and also Tombestone (not much of a live track though) has a great vibe. One thing i don't understand i why not Star of The County Down which i beleive is recorded around the same time did not end up on the album!
Last but not least Blue Heaven makes me puke.

I only like bits of Peace and Love, I much prefer Hell's Ditch. I like Blue Heaven, Young Ned of the Hill, White City and Lullaby of London, maybe a couple of others that I can't think of right now.

Brian

This my favorite album. Actually the first cassett of thiers I purchased. I loved driving along deserted country roads with Gridlock blaring from the speakers of my old V8 Monaro

I was really dissapointed with Peace and Love at the time it came out. I didn't think it was a bad album but I think it suffered because it was the first Pogues album to have a bad track on it. Personally, I am not a big fan of Blue Heaven, Lorelei, Gartloney Rats or London You're A Lady. They are all inferior to everything on the previous albums. I love USA and Young Ned Of The Hill though. In fairness, Peace and Love is better than anything most bands ever produce.

The Pogues second LP to have been produced by Steve Lillywhite was, in retrospect, the giddy limit. It is absolutely heaving with snappy tunes, good ideas, musical virtuosity, flashes of lyrical genius and (to Mr Lillywhite's credit-AGAIN, Why did anyone ever doubt him?) production values which present the band as well, if not better, than any producer who ever taped them, but is still, I'm afraid, an artistic disaster.

It's often compared to "The White Album", in that it is a great LP by accident, compiled rather than composed. Assembled afterwards rather than conceived and executed by a musical unit. It's true, it COULD have been entitled "Now That's What I Call The Pogues", such is it's incoherent lurching from open to close; Worse, on more than one occasion, The Pogues are simply treading water, as even IF this album simply HAD to be a double-set, running more than an hour, it could probably have survived without yet another instrumental number using blaring brass to signify busy city streets.

For every bona-fide 'peach' ("Down All The Days", "Night Train To Lorca", "White City" etc) there's an absolute donkey; Many of them with more than the slightest whiff of 'out-take' to them. ("USA", "Blue Heaven", "Cotton Fields") The closing trio of "Tombstone", "Night Train..." and "London, You're A Lady" only serving to exacerbate the sense of disatisfaction by sounding JUST LIKE the final chapter of a proper Pogues record.

Could it have been ruthlessly edited down to a 40 minute, Pogues classic?

No. They hated the sight of each other by then, it would've meant one brutal fight none of them would've survived.

tis a bitchin album

Like cotton fields, white city, boat train, misty morning, london you're a lady, rest to be honest i usually skip

What people think of Hells ditch compared with peace and love?

I love both P&L and Hells Ditch. I warmed to P&L quicker than I did to Hells Ditch but now both have my equal love!!! Young Ned of the Hill is one of my fav Pogues songs ever and its the one I force none Pogues fans to listen to (you know the ones I mean the ones who go "oh I like the Pogues - Fairytale of NY was a great song") Force them to listen to Young Ned of the Hill and they will want to listen to more.

Nat wrote: Young Ned of the Hill is one of my fav Pogues songs ever.

Agree, P&L is a great album, though I'm not a great fan of Blue Heaven or Cotton Fields. When I first heard it (xx years ago) Down All The Days was my favourite track. But now White City, Misty Morning Albert Bridge, Boat Train, London You're A Lady. And I totally agree about Young Ned Of The Hill. Great live performance at Brixton, and that was the song I woke up singing the next morning. (Now there's a potential thread )
Hell's Ditch - yes, I love that too.

It is a great album indeed .
My favorites are white city (one of the best).
and london you're a lady -what a great lyric!!!!
the bonus tracks are great too!

your review reads like a music journo bluffing he knows what he's talking about, but mistakes give you away. And London Your A Lady IS a masterpiece. Those of you that don't get it now, will get it in years to come. That's a promise.

It's a crying shame Shane doesn't sing Young Ned Of The Hill.. that would be sweet.