Source: Newsday
Date: July 9, 1995
Author: Tom Sinclair
Contributor: DzM
Copyright: (c) Newsday 1995
The Snake (review)
When Shane MacGowan was booted from the Pogues for drunken debauchery above and beyond the call of rock and roll convention several years back, many assumed the chronically dissipated singer to be a spent force. But MacGowan has crawled out of the gutter, assembled a crackerjack new band and cut an album that easily stands up to the Pogues' best efforts. On "The Snake," MacGowan and the Popes reel and rock through a collection of traditional Irish folk tunes, uptempo rants and love songs with a loose-limbed confidence that heralds a welcome return to form.
A wildly eclectic record that veers from the jazzy, phantasmagorical "A Mexican Funeral in Paris" to the woozy, romantic "Haunted" (a duet with Sinead O'Connor), "The Snake" is nonetheless a fully coherent and satisfying opus. MacGowan remains a remarkably expressive singer, bending his rusty hacksaw voice to fit the doleful "Her Father Didn't Like Me Anyway" and the profane "Donegal Express." But our man is most convincing belting out the rousing chorus of "That Woman's Got Me Drinking" - "Gimme one-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight-nine-ten bottles of gin!," as pithy a creed as any booze hound could want.
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