|
|
|
|
|
|
|
From the opening track, Church of the Holy Spook, which sees MacGowan playing the rock 'n' roll martyr, the album crashes into your sensibilities like a bar room brawl and the mayhem is sustained - through That Woman's Got Me Drinking, a stomping, sozzled anthem to addictive love.
MacGowan's sobriety may often be in question, but his ability to write a poignant ballad is beyond doubt, and The Song with No Name proves that MacGowan's songwriting is as sharp and soul baring as ever.
Gerry Rafferty's Her Father Didn't Like Me Anyway is a perfect vehicle for MacGowan's unrepentant unsuitability. A Mexican Funeral in Paris is a violent vigriette filled with wetbacks, killers and dealers, a sort of Reservoir Dogs meets Gabriel Garcia Marquez, replete with trumpets, trombones and tenor sax, while The Snake with Eyes of Garnet is a weird trip through time in which MacGowan meets the ghost of James Mangan, is brought to a pre Famine public execution in Dublin and is given a snake shaped ring by the young Irish martyr on the scaffold: "The snake cannot be captured, the snake cannot be tied, the snake cannot be tortured or hung or crucified." It could be MacGowan's own amulet, protecting him from the perils of pop stardom.
We can safely guess that Victoria was written for Shane's girlfriend Victoria Clarke but don't be so quick to assume that the "fat monk singing Gloria" is a reference to Van Morrison - I mean, U2 also sang Gloria, didn't they?
Donegal Express is a raunchy, rollicking reel, filled with colourful characters and even more colourful language - try sin this one at your local and see how quickly you end up kissing the pavement.
While The Snake lacks the mat tire, well aged flavour which marked the Pogues at their best, it's still a nicely distilled sample of MacGowan's maverick talent, and the Popes pack enough wallop for 10 Baby Powers.