The Medusa Fora

philipchevron wrote:First, write your song.

Happy new year to you too shipbuilder.

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

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

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.

In particular when the ship comes in and tosspint.

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.

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.

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.

Shillaly Bro wrote: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 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.

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?

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 ".

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.