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When The Pogues released their first album, Red Roses For Me, in 1984 they sounded more like an Irish pub novelty act than future headliners at the Reading Festival. They had three songs: a fast punky-folk thing, with roaring vocals and a variety of titles like Boys From The County Hell or Streams Of Whiskey; a slow, ballady one-The Auld Triangle or Kitty; and an instrumental. They played them adequately at high speed and rather ponderously in lower gear. The pipes and whistles were nice and flighty, the banjo toiled but kept up, the bass was a plodding bore. The Pogues were OK. What they did have in those days though was a singer who sang rather than croaked, and the most interesting tracks on Red Roses For Me today are the ones which showcase young Shane MacGowan before he turned himself into a sad Irish joke whose voice had to be carried by the band.
Q Rating: 3
Rum, Sodomy And The Lash, which came out in 1985, was-and still is-one of this decade's more pleasant surprises. Producer Elvis Costello had filled out The Pogues' sound, banishing the throwaway pub-rock ambiance of their earlier efforts. The group's playing and writing had matured and their musical range had broadened. The future Mrs Costello, Cait O'Riordan, sang a song. Jem Finer wrote the first of several Spanish Western themes. The confident swagger of A Pair Of Brown Eyes marked the emergence of Shane MacGowan as an articulate and catchy songwriter. The recruitment of Philip Chevron (guitar) was the first in a drive to give the arrangements more substance and weight. Best of all, the music now conveyed far more than a vague incitement to getting rowdy and/or drunk. Navigator and The Band Played Waltzing Matilda brought The Pogues' rebel roots to the fore, and the updating of traditional balladry with contemporary (ie squalid) sketches of urban life was beginning to sound serious. Yet it isn't a heavy listen. Shane MacGowan's gallows humour is all-pervasive. His favourite themes-death, decay and depravity -were still, at this point, a matter for art rather than everyday life.
Q Rating: 4