Customer Reviews

Hell's Ditch

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was the last Pogues album to feature the singing and songwriting talents of Shane MacGowan- and if you ask me that makes this the LAST Pogues album. As much I would like to say that the Pogues and MacGowan went out with a bang on their last album together, it just isn't true. "Hell's Ditch" is the weakest of the band's five studio albums.

There is no question that by 1990 MacGowan's alcohol and drug problems (the man's a junkie!) had taken their awful toll on his abilities. His voice on "Hell's Ditch" is no longer the boozy growl of previous efforts but an almost unintelligible mumble. I won't say that his songwriting talents had fully abandoned him- "On Sunnyside on the Street" and "Summer in Siam" are very, very good. However, this album continues the trend started with "Peace & Love"- a good part of the CD features songs written and sung by other members of the band with mixed results. "Hell's Ditch" has a lot of weak filler songs in comparison to previous Pogues albums.

This was the end of the road for the Pogues. "Hell's Ditch" was released in 1990 and the next year MacGowan would be fired by the band on the eve of its U.S. tour. (In September 1991, I would see the Shane-less Pogues perform at NYC's Beacon Theater with Joe Strummer (who produced "Hell's Ditch") filling in as lead singer.) Without question the Pogues were one of the most exciting and unique groups to emerge during the 80's- a raucous blend of Irish folk and British punk. So in comparison to the vast majority of the music being produced in 1990 (Milli Vanilli and Vanilla Ice were chart toppers at the time) Hell's Ditch is a fantastic CD, but when compared to previous Pogues' efforts it doesn't entirely measure up.

While it was clear by the time this album was released that all was not well with the Pogues, there are moments of pure crystaline brilliance on this album that continue to speak to me. "Lorca's Novena" is right up there among the best songs Shane MacGowan ever wrote, and is simply beatiful -- and also horrifying. The patient listener is amply rewarded on this album. There are hardly any of those tedious non-MacGowan moments one finds on "Peace & Love", as "Hell's Ditch" feels more like a harmonious whole than a patchwork of unrelated 'showcase' material for various bandmates.

This is the fifth and final album that the Pogues and Shane MacGowan collaborated on, and it's a nice swan song. While it doesn't quite live up to the stature of the band's first three albums, it's a marked improvement on their fourth record (Peace & Love). It's a surprisingly upbeat album, considering the nature of some of the lyrics, and the outside influences that would soon cause the band to move forward without it's driving force. Songs like "The Sunnyside of the Street", "Sayonara", "Summer in Siam", and "Rain Street" are among the Pogues all time best works. Unfortunately, the album loses it's momentum after a strong first half, and the bonus tracks that are included on the remastered edition, aren't particularly memorable for the most part. Still, for those that love the Pogues, this album is definitely worth purchasing, and enjoying time and time again.

after "If I Should Fall From Grace Of God" you can tell something is happening to Shane MacGowan. On "Red Roses For Me" he sounds sharp intense and clear. When you get to "Hell's Ditch" he sounds muttled confused worn out and his voice has more of a gutteral sound. This is a way better album than "Peace and Love" the music is different than the rest of the albums. The songs on this album have more of a variety from Spanish guitar and Asian influenced music to pop with Shane's great songwriting (But not as great as it was). Many of the songs subjects are based off of Shane's trips to Thailand to dry out. The songs are mostly great but the vocals are harder to listen to since his voice has gone downhill. It is sad all of that talent got stifled by his addictions, I guess this is selfish since if he wasn't so talented I wouldn't care.

Hell's Ditch seems like an effort to blend many different styles of music and to sound more "international." Perhaps it was the influence of Joe Strummer, who produced this album and, as we all know, was in that marvelous British escapade known as The Clash. If you know the Clash, then you probably know the direction Joe Strummer has been heading since the first Clash album. Similar to Peace and Love, some of the songs here are really exceptional and some are just...blah. Unlike Peace and Love, the bad songs here don't go so far as to make me want to flush it down the toilet, but the good songs aren't quite as good as the ones on Peace and Love, either. Of course, there can be no comparison between Hell's Ditch and any of the Pogues' first three albums. They were the work of a higher power. The Sunnyside of the Street is a nice beginning, Sayonara is probably the best song on here, Lorca's Novena is hauntingly beautiful, and House of the Gods is very cute. On the other hand, the song Hell's Ditch is simply disgusting ("I can hear the screams from up above, if it ain't a fist it isn't love") and I am at a loss as to the meanings of songs like Rainbow Man and 5 Green Queens and Jean. Overall, this is a skippy album with the highlights sporadically placed throughout. I would only recommend it to you if you're really insistent on getting all the Pogues albums.

The writing was on the wall by the time Peace and Love was released, but Hells Ditch, The Pogues' fifth album, signalled the end of an era. By this album there was little left of the raw vocal and musical energy and Celtic flair that made The Pogues so famous. Instead this album awkwardly explores a wide range of musical styles, and frontman Shane MacGowan sounds so bored and drunk that the music has to carry him through the entire album. In fact he was so distant from the band by this time--largely because of his drinking habit--that he only sang about half the songs on the album. (Not surprisingly, this is the last Pogues album with MacGowan as a band member.) The magic was clearly gone by this time, and they never got it back. Overall this is a decent album, but is a profound letdown by Pogues standards--hence the 2-star rating.

I don't know why this album gets lukewarm critical reviews. I love it. Maybe because it isn't the exact same alterna-punk Irish folk hybrid they became famous for previously. Some people didn't like some of the more pop-oriented stuff, but that's bull - this stuff is pure Pogues at the core, and Shane is still (barely) on top of his poetic game.

The songs stick to you, and have stayed with me as lovingly as when I first heard this album 17 years ago. You want another "If I Should Fall From Grace With God?" Then play that album over and over, again and again, until you are ready for This one.

While most Pogues fans with a taste for things Irish roundly condemn Hell's Ditch it is a good record. Certainly it is far superior to Peace and Love. When Peace and Love was released MacGowan told anyone who would listen that the band had abandoned its Irish roots. "They were trying to divorce themselves from the Irish thing," he complained. With Hell's Ditch the divorce was finalized and MacGowan had lost custody of the leprechauns. Panning a record because it has no Irish flavor, however, is shortsighted at best. By that standard, Rubber Soul and Highway 61 are dismal. If Hell's Ditch had been released by another band and therefore not compared to the Pogues' first three LPs, more listeners would recognize it for the wonderful rock album it is. MacGowan's voice is ragged, but it drips with attitude and oozes anger. Perhaps producer Joe Strummer's punk sensibilities made the difference. Perhaps the fact that Finer and MacGowan collaborated more than they had done on Peace and Love made the difference. Whatever the reason, it's a damn fine post-Irish Pogues LP. MacGowan co-wrote nine of the album's thirteen songs. To be sure, the record continued down the fusion path. "Maidrin Rua," a traditional instrumental, is the only straight up Irish number on the disc. Most of the album, despite typical Pogues' acoustic instrumentation, rocks hard. Only three cuts use an electric guitar. While there are some other instruments that the band didn't normally use in the past, they're not those typically found in a rock band. For instance, Finer played a hurdy-gurdy he built himself, and Fearnley used a sitar on one track. Under Joe Strummer's production, however, the overall sound is not what you'd expect from mandolins, mandolas, citterns, auto harps, accordions, concertinas, tin whistles, banjos and the like.
"Sunny Side of the Street," "The Ghost of a Smile," and "Rain Street" rock the best. None of the three reach the lyrical heights MacGowan had attained in the past, but two of the tracks boast lines any rock and roller would be proud to have penned. "Sunny Side of the Street" was co-written with Jem Finer. Lyrically, his contribution was the title, which was used in the refrain. The best of what Shane contributed came in the opening verse: "Seen the carnival at Rome. Had the women, had the booze. All I can remember now is little kids without no shoes." "Rain Street" is one of the album's strongest tracks. Its focus on a particular street brings to mind Dylan's "Desolation Row." The depiction of MacGowan's street is far more stripped down than Dylan's classic, but no less compelling. Crammed with Christian imagery, it is peopled with priests in a bar (one with a venereal disease), St. Anthony, Judas, and Jesus himself. For good measure a singing drunk and a young girl hocking her wedding ring are thrown into the mix. My favorite verse is the second: "Down the alley the ice wagon flew, picked up a stiff that was turning blue. The local kids were sniffing glue. Not much else for a kid to do on Rain Street."
The musical fusion MacGowan lamented is blatant in three of his own songs: "Lorca's Novena," "Hell's Ditch," and "Five Green Queens and Jean" (the last two co-written with Finer). "Lorca's Novena" is about the execution of Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, a Spanish folk hero killed by pro-Franco forces during the Spanish Civil War. The music is unusual, even by Pogues' standards. It builds gradually and dramatically with a distinctive Spanish feel. The album's title cut, "Hell's Ditch" centers on Jean Genet, a homosexual French writer who spent a great deal of his life in prison, some of it in Spain. Musically, the track feels Spanish and Mideastern at the same time, acknowledging, as so much Spanish music does, Muslim influences dating back to the middle ages. "Five Green Queens and Jean" is the best of these three cuts. Lyrically sparse, the song defies interpretation. MacGowan has said the five green queens refer to a dice game where one surface of each die depicts a queen colored green. MacGowan intended the track to be recorded with just an acoustic guitar but was overruled. The final arrangement was probably intended to sound Spanish as well, but to an American ear it brings Mexico to mind. Terry Woods' mandolin playing is perfect, and James Fearnley's accordion work would make Flaco Jimenez proud.
"Sayonara," "House of Gods," and "Summer in Siam" have been called MacGowan's Thailand trilogy. All three are set in the Far-eastern nation where Shane has so often retreated for R & R. As one would expect, there's little of the Dubliners' influence evident on these cuts. The songs are loaded with references to Thailand's beaches, whiskey, beer, and women. All three work quite nicely, especially "Summer in Siam." Lyrically the song is spare, more so than anything else MacGowan has written. Apart from repetition, there are just six lines and 27 words. It is none the less beautiful. MacGowan calls it a musical haiku. The music, complete with a kalimba, harp, and congas, is slow, soft, and elegant.
Hell's Ditch may not sound like a Pogues' album, but it sounds very good.

Rake at the Gates of Hell: Shane MacGowan in Context

While more cohesive than PEACE & LOVE, this one is truely the last gasp. Or final straw. Like PEACE, this is the sound of making 2 different albums on one. The Pogues do their best to hold the fort, but only seem to tag along with MacGowan's increasingly garbled whims. Or vice versa. Perhaps it's a little of both.

Though he seems to have almost abdicated vocally, its MacGowan's songwriting that keeps this record on its feet. "Sunny Side Of The Street" & "Ghost Of A Smile" are great pop songs, marred only by MacGowan's slurred delivery. It seems not even the presence of producer, Joe Strummer could keep him interested. Throughout the album (any chemical issues aside) he sounds like his heart isn't in it.

Elsewhere, the title track & the Spainish influenced "Lorca's Novena" hint at what could be. Beyond that, MacGowan casts his romantic eyes to the far East for 2 standout tracks, "Summer In Siam" & "Sayonara".

Inbetween, its The Pogues doing their best to carry on, but the songs just don't have that old fire & brimestone.

"Rain Street" brings things back to the old stomping ground & "Five Green Queens" is a haunting coda but in the end, both MacGowan & The Pogues seemed to just be putting up with eachother as good naturedly as they can. It doesn't make for the most inspired of albums. The talent is there, but not the will. Overall, its the sonic equivalent of a weary, limp handed shake goodbye.

The Pogues stoically hung in there for 2 more albums & despite their musicianship, it just wasn't the same without Shane. As for MacGowan he released 2 as well. With mixed results. None of their post FALL FROM GRACE output quite reaches the heights of their first 3 albums together. Which are still as potent as a flaming bottle of poitin. Mad & furious. Chockfull of cheek, piss & vinegar.

Slagging the Pogues isn't something I like to do, but if you're going to be true to the bands you like, that means they have to take the criticism as well as the accolades. And the fact is, this album misses the mark by far.

By any other band it might even be a 3- or 4-star affair, but not by the Pogues. Spider Stacy claimed that 'it's not timid... it's raucous when it has to be.' but this is hogwash. The songwriting is uninteresting, the conviction of the band (especially shane's vocals) is found wanting, and the album never really gels as a 'Pogues' release.

Matt Johnson's subsequent TheThe releases following 'Infected' are similar, in that they're a total departure, and they might be saluted as an artistic (read: maturity) change, but they're less interesting as a result.

If you find it used--cheap--you might want to pick it up, but otherwise forget about it. I'm sure the Pogues already have.