Search - Pogues :: Waiting for Herb

What's that?

A Busy Man | 09/16/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm at work, so I'll make this short.



Everyone seems to be holding this to standards that it definately cannot stand up to. This is not the MacGowan Pogues that we all know and love. And yes, this release is a bit pop. With all that aside, there really are some damn good songs on this album. In fact, I would go as far to say that "Drunken Boat" is one of my all time favorite songs from any band. And I could only hope that there were some Pop artists out there today that could put something like this together. And I've actually shared this album with many friends who have never heard anything from the Pogues, and most of them are now diehard Pogues fans.



In my opinion (judging by many of the Shane MacGowan and the Popes and various other post-Pogues MacGowan releases that I have) the Pogues would not have sounded much like the Red Roses For Me-Pogues on this album had they kept Shane, anyway."

Pogues Go Pop

BMD | Cleveland Heights, OH United States | 12/29/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"From a "group" that reached stratospheric heights of songwriting in the past, this album is absolute garbage-- revealing the said group to be no more than "Shane and the Gang." Having lost (fired) Shane MacGowan, the Pogues lost their edge, both musically and lyrically. Abandoning Shane's preference for weaving traditional and contemporary music into a seamless garment, the unShaned Pogues dive headlong into pop music played with traditional instruments. The results are bland and unmemorable at best-- and nauseating at worst."

Not "for fans only" ....

DJ Primate | Detroit, MI USA | 06/01/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Closer to "for non-fans only"...



The opinions of this album tend to fall into one of two camps:



1) Die-hard Pogues fans who are fairly offended by the band having booted out Shane MacGowan, keeping the band name in the absence of its most recognizable figure, and furthermore disgracing the band's name by by releasing an album that was more accessible and pop-oriented than prior Pogues albums.



2) People enjoy the music, which they find catchy and diverse.



I place myself firmly in the latter group. I gotta wonder if this album would have gone over so badly with many Pogues fans had it been released under a different band name, such as "Spider and the Somethingorothers".



"Real" Pogues or not, this album just has some wonderful songs, in a variety of different musical styles (almost every song stylistically different from each other), from infectious folk-pop ("Sitting On Top of the World") to a bouncy, Eastern-European sound that prefigured Gogol Bordello ("Drunken Boat"), some pleasant ballads, their almost obligatory middle-eastern influenced tune (the superb "Girl from the Wadi Hammamat"), even Americana ("My Baby's Gone," which has energy galore, and probably the worst American accent I've ever heard on a recording).



So, while I could understand why some fans might take offense to this being released as a Pogues album, the music stands up quite well on its own merits. Pop in this disc and enjoy Spider and the Somethingorothers!"