The Pogues - The Ultimate Collection [2 CD, Remastered] (2005) [RE-UP]

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The Pogues - The Ultimate Collection [2 CD, Remastered] (2005) [RE-UP]

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THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION features 44 tracks by Irish rockers taken from both the studio and their fiery live performances and includes the tracks "Rainy Night In Soho," "Irish Rover," "Fiesta," and Ewan MacColl's "Dirty Old Town."

"MacGowan has a rare way with words and an ability to take something horrible and make…"

Following on from the remastered editions of all seven of their studio albums, The Pogues release The Ultimate Collection, a celebration of that body of work with a second CD of live material recorded at the Brixton Academy in 2001.

It's difficult not to put the words 'MacGowan' and 'genius' together in the same sentence. For those of you that wonder why, disc one opens with "A Rainy Night In Soho", in which MacGowan exhibits his rare way with words and ability to take something horrible and make it sound beautiful, delicate and, of course, intoxicating.

But it's a shame that he alone is hailed as such a talent, because there were other geniuses in the band. "Fairytale Of New York" was co-written by Jem Finer - the Flann O'Brien de Selby-esque character behind "Longplayer", a piece of music set to run for 1,000 years. Also present were Terry Woods, who formed Steeleye Span, and Philip Chevron, who penned the Christy Moore favourite "Faithful Departed". And then, of course, there were another four amazing musicians at any one time. Phew!

It is a further shame that The Pogues are legends only in Irish folk music, for they brought so much more to the music world than the 'deedle-idly-dum' stuff. Don't get me wrong, their deedly-idles were far from dum, it's just that they ploughed other musical lands and far-away plains: "Fiesta" is a journey through a festival-filled Spanish village with bulls and all; "Summer In Siam" is one verse repeated three and a half times in a heavenly eastern dream; "London Girl" is MacGowan's hat-tip to northern soul (speaking of which, where is "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!"?).

When you look at who produced The Pogues' albums - Elvis Costello, Joe Strummer and U2's Steve Lilywhite amongst others - you'd be forgiven for thinking that they might not be able to pull it off live, especially with MacGowan's notorious alcohol and drug intake. Thankfully, the 2001 recording included here stands as a testament that they could, and much more brilliantly than you might think.

~ Cormac Heron, BBC Review

Live disc makes this collection a "Must Buy"!

While the material on Disk 1 of this two disk set is really just a digitially remastered recycling of pre-released material (and incidentally about the 4th Pogues greatest hits album released), Disk 2, a live CD recorded at the Pogues Reunion Show in 2001, is simply unbelievable.

"Unbelievable" for a number of reasons. First, the sound quality is fantastic, which is not the case for most of the Pogues live recordings issued as bootlegs, etc. Second, Shane MacGowan sounds MUCH more coherent than he has recently on his live solo album ("Across The Broad Atlantic"), or even on his studio albums ("The Snake" & "The Crock of Gold"). It is still the MacGowan sound that makes you wish that you were as drunk as he is, but the lyrics are decypherable. Finally, the song selection is great, including such post-Shane songs as "Tuesday Morning" (written and sung by Spider Stacy).

All in all, a great album, which is a "must" for Pogues fans and a fun, enjoyable listen for new Pogues listeners.

~ Amazon customer review

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The Pogues - The Ultimate Collection [2 CD, Remastered] (2005) [RE-UP]

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A Pogues Ulitmate Collection, I'll Drink To That!

Although there have been many "best of" compilation albums by the seminal Irish-folk punk rock band, this one by far is the most important and exciting one. The first disc, showcases the brilliant songwriting of Shane MacGowan, however, all of this material is found on other Pogues "best of" albums, not to mention their original albums. The compilation album features classic cuts from the Pogues brilliant first three albums, (Red Roses For Me, Rum Sodomy and the Lash, and If I Should Fall From Grace With God,) up to their very good follow-up albums (Peace and Love and Hell's Ditch.) There even is a post-Shane song on this first disc as well. But as before, all of this material can be found on other mediums.

The best feature of this new compilation album, is the bonus live CD of the Pogues in 2001, at London's Brixton Academy. This live album showcases the amazing energy that made the Pogues such an exciting live act in the first place, even Shane seems up to task as well. When listening to this CD, I felt that I was actually there, man what a feeling!

All in all a very good album, hopefully a new live CD will eventually be produced covering the Pogues 2004 reunion tour. But for right now, grab a Guinness, and drink up lads, its the best of the Pogues.

~ Amazon customer review

Worth the money for the bonus disk alone.

You can only pity the people in this world who will only know this band for their only top ten hit, "Fairytale of New York". And most of them probably don't realise that The Pogues are indeed a band, not a gap toothed ugly drunken singer with a rough voice.

This CD, like all the other Pogues compilations falls short of showing the Pogues as they were meant to be known, it just doesn't reveal their soul. To really know them buy "Rum, Sodomy & the Lash". The CD does offer a decent selection from various stages of the life of the band, both with Shane MacGowan and without.

Of course, purists will always argue over which tracks should be included and which should be left out. Overall it is as good as any compilation that could be made of this seminal band. There are songs that capture the dazzling musical talent of the musicians, and there are songs that haunt you with the power and pure emotional magic of Shane's lyrics (And when we got back labelled parts one to three, there was no pair of brown eyes waiting for me)…. Oh God.

The bonus disk features songs recorded live over two nights at the now legendary reuninion concerts at Brixton Academy. And I was there. The fact that thousands of people sold out venues all over the country to see this bunch of over-the-hill old timers is testament to the power of the music they produced. The live CD captures the Pogues as they are meant to be heard, live and raw. The full spectrum of emotion is presented here, but why did they not include the heart stopping rendition of "A Man You Don't Meet Everyday"? I swear there were tears in my eyes as we sang along to this with all our passion.

Highlights are the pounding "Dirty Old Town", "A Pair of Brown Eyes" and "Thousands are Sailing". Buy this CD and enjoy the greates songwriter of the last century, along with possibly one of the greatest bands.

~ Amazon customer review

The Pogues info at:

Official Homepage
Wikipedia
MySpace
AllMusic
LastFM
Shane MacGowan Official Homepage

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The Pogues - The Ultimate Collection [2 CD, Remastered] (2005) [RE-UP]

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