The Pogues: If I Should Fall From Grace With God

I just picked up a copy of The Pogues: If I Should Fall From Grace With God and it has been my constant driving companion for the past couple days.

Before this album, I never was a fan of Irish music. I think it has to do with all the major scales, its frenetic pace and odd time. I tried to get into it. Whenever the Thistle and Shamrock came on NPR, I would listen for a couple songs, but I always had to turn it off, because my head would start to ache. It always reminded me of the scene in This is Spinal Tap when the small people are dancing around the miniature Stonehenge. That being said, I could get into some Irish reels, like the fiddle tunes I used to play with the boys from the Red Stick Ramblers. But for the most part, it would never be something I would listen to.

But then I saw a biography of Shane McGowan. Maybe it was his bad teeth that made me identify with him. But mostly it was his punk attitude, like "I'm Irish and I'm proud! I'm ugly and can barely sing, but suck on it anyway!"

For me, the stand-out track on this album is Fairytale of New York, which is probably the best Christmas song to come out in the past couple decades, since White Christmas.

Posted by Mike Waugh at August 17, 2004 10:29 AM