Review
The Popes - holloway boulevard
- Author:
- Review Date:
- 5/15/2001 7:56:31
snapper records
-- ok. so the story goes like this. in about 1980 shane macgowan would leave his punk rock bad, the nipple erectors [a.k.a.- the nips], to form the influential Irish folk music / punk rock band the pogues.
the pogues mixed the broken-hearted soul of Irish pub music with the screaming spite of punk rock. they would record a handful of legendary records filled with punk rock distorted guitars, and flying Irish tin whistle. mr.macgowan would later exit [or would that be 'he was exited'?] from the band. he re-grouped with a similar styled and obviously pogues-influenced group, named the popes. shane recorded several albums with the new crowd when he was able to. [apparently, drugs become quite time consuming.].
following 1997's 'crock of gold', shane would again leave the spotlight and leave a band to trudge on without him. even though he appears as a guest vocal on a pair of tracks on holloway blvd, they unfortunately suffer from the same post-shane slump that crushed the pogues.
while the popes fight to keep the style the same, minus macgowan's snarl and stutter, the tunes fall short. similar in style to their other work, this album is still an upbeat mix of folk strumming and sing-along lyrics. songs like 'hillbilly soul' seem to have a zydeco feel with speeding fiddles. traditional Irish standard 'hills of connebara', stills races a hundred miles an hour, sounding like the clancy brothers on a handful of blues. also of note, spider stacy, shane's childhood friend and founding member of the pogues makes an appearance on this album, basically blurring the lines between pogues and popes. 'chino's place', one of the numbers penned and lunged by macgowan, is a lunging drunk rock and roller with shane's trademark howl.
for the most part this record is ok. it's shows that this sound's still got some legs, and with a healthy innovator could still be running on. however, one unstable man can't keep a band afloat, and for the most part the popes now come off as stagnant. save your money, and track down an import of the classic pogues 'rum sodomy and the lash' [produced by Elvis Costello], or try another modern band that has obviously taken copious notes on the style-- flogging molly and their new album 'swagger' on side one dummy records.
-- ok. so the story goes like this. in about 1980 shane macgowan would leave his punk rock bad, the nipple erectors [a.k.a.- the nips], to form the influential Irish folk music / punk rock band the pogues.
the pogues mixed the broken-hearted soul of Irish pub music with the screaming spite of punk rock. they would record a handful of legendary records filled with punk rock distorted guitars, and flying Irish tin whistle. mr.macgowan would later exit [or would that be 'he was exited'?] from the band. he re-grouped with a similar styled and obviously pogues-influenced group, named the popes. shane recorded several albums with the new crowd when he was able to. [apparently, drugs become quite time consuming.].
following 1997's 'crock of gold', shane would again leave the spotlight and leave a band to trudge on without him. even though he appears as a guest vocal on a pair of tracks on holloway blvd, they unfortunately suffer from the same post-shane slump that crushed the pogues.
while the popes fight to keep the style the same, minus macgowan's snarl and stutter, the tunes fall short. similar in style to their other work, this album is still an upbeat mix of folk strumming and sing-along lyrics. songs like 'hillbilly soul' seem to have a zydeco feel with speeding fiddles. traditional Irish standard 'hills of connebara', stills races a hundred miles an hour, sounding like the clancy brothers on a handful of blues. also of note, spider stacy, shane's childhood friend and founding member of the pogues makes an appearance on this album, basically blurring the lines between pogues and popes. 'chino's place', one of the numbers penned and lunged by macgowan, is a lunging drunk rock and roller with shane's trademark howl.
for the most part this record is ok. it's shows that this sound's still got some legs, and with a healthy innovator could still be running on. however, one unstable man can't keep a band afloat, and for the most part the popes now come off as stagnant. save your money, and track down an import of the classic pogues 'rum sodomy and the lash' [produced by Elvis Costello], or try another modern band that has obviously taken copious notes on the style-- flogging molly and their new album 'swagger' on side one dummy records.