The island it is silent now and the ghosts still haunt the waves

Continuing my trip back through the 1988 album charts.

31/01/88 : If I Should Fall From Grace With God - The Pogues

Our second visit with The Pogues and this is one I'm quite surprised to get to meet - pleasantly so because I don't think I've ever listened to it, which feels like a big omission on my part.

And yes, it very much was - and I've got quite a lot to say about it. We have to start with "Fairytale Of New York" which is quite possibly the best Xmas song (even if it's not exactly Xmassy) with Kirsty (who has been mentioned quite a few times, but we have yet to meet) elevating things nicely - but it's not even my favourite Pogue's song on the album! "Thousands Are Sailing" is pure poetry about the desolate life of the Irish immigrant, comparing expectation and reality whilst delivering a few stark home truths - "where'er we go, we celebrate the land that makes us refugees". It's also got a great tune to it - it's well worth checking out if you don't know it.

The only other track I previously knew on the album is "Fiesta" which is an odd one because a) it's Spanish sounding (who was expecting that?) and b) I really can't decide if I like it or not. I enjoyed the other tracks though - they mostly have that speedy Irish folky jig thing going on but there's enough poetry and variety in there that it feels worth another listen or to would really open it up. The only things that jumped out at me on first listen were that "The Broad Majestic Shannon" seems to use exactly the same melody as "Fairytale Of New York" (which is an unusual choice) and I also have to say "Worms" is a MOST peculiar album closer! You obviously have to be partial to a spot of Poguery for this, but I enjoyed it and will make an effort to revisit it.

We're at #5 in the charts this week on their second week of a fifteen with run, with it having peaked at #3 in its debut week. The rest of the top five are Terence Trent D'Arby, The Christians, Johnny Hates Jazz and Wet Wet Wet (I think it's fair to say The Pogues somewhat stand out from the crowd here) and the highest new entry was David Lee Roth (#11).

Wikipedia has more on the album than I was expecting (158 milliPeppers) and it tells us it's their third album and they welcomed three new members to the band, two of whom were, unusually for the band, actually born in Ireland - did you know Shane MacGowan won a scholarship to Westminster School? (although he was expelled for drug offences!). One of these new members, Philip Chevron, wrote "Thousands Are Sailing" and it was his first song submitted to the band and it was also played at his funeral, which is quite the introduction and departure. Critically, the album was very well received and is generally regarded as their high point and commercially it did better than you might expect in some strange places, getting to #4 in New Zealand and #9 in Sweden and Switzerland, but only #88 in the US.

I also went down an entertaining "Fairytale Of New York" rabbit-hole and found this amusing contribution from Irish musician Rob Smith - "I have heard Bon Jovi's cover of Fairytale of New York. It's the worst thing to ever happen to music, and I am including both the murder of John Lennon and Brian McFadden's solo career in there. This is worse!". Which sounds harsh, but not if you listen to it - it starts off terrible and somehow manages to keep getting worse.

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a decent copy for three quid but if you want a Japanese promotion copy (and who can begin to guess how they went down in Japan?) then it's going to cost you £110. I was expecting to like this, but I think it exceeded expectations - for a band with a somewhat ramshackle reputation, this is a surprisingly well-crafted album which I really enjoyed.

24/01/88 - Very of its time
07/02/88 - Fine if it's what you're after