Customer Reviews

Hell's Ditch

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

 

 

Although many Pogues fans slam this album, I think it still holds up. It is more relaxed and lyrically set apart form the earlier Pogues album. Shane went to Thailand to "gather himself together" and was able to pull some great songs together before he left the Pogues for good. All the tracks with Shane are Great! You feel like they wrote the album on the beaches of Thailand dinking Singha beer. It flows better then Peace and Love, and though it lacks the intensity of the first 3 albums I find myself listening to this one just as much as the others. The beach boys instrumental intro on House of Gods is great! This album could only have been better with more Shane songs!

By the time the Pogues started recording "Hell's Ditch," it had become clear that Shane MacGowan's excesses were starting to affect his muse. Thailand is the overall theme for the songs that MacGowan wrote for "Hell's Ditch," and overall the album seems to have a more relaxed vibe around it than the previous Pogues releases. Produced by the late great Joe Strummer "Hell's Ditch" finds the Pogues expanding their musical boundaries, adding Eastern and Spanish sounds into their catologue with such songs as "Lorca's Novena and The Wake of the Medusa." As before MacGowan's songs are the best on this release, however his vocals are not up to par, in fact it sounds like he is in a drunken stupor most of the time. However, such songs as "Sayonara, The Ghost of a Smile, Summer In Siam, Rain Street,and House of the Gods," showed that MacGowan could still pack a wallop. The MacGowan/Finer songwriting team, that was lacking on "Peace and Love," returns with the excellent "Sunnyside of the Street, 5 Green Queens and Jean and Hell's Ditch," "Maidrin Rua" is a good traditional reworking instrumental, while Terry Wood's "Rainbow Man" and "Six to Go, about the "Birmingham Six," round off the album. Overall, "Hell's Ditch" lacks the fireworks of the previous Pogues records, this one doesn't even come close to the brilliance of the first three Pogues records, I even prefer "Peace and Love," over "Hell's Ditch." However, "Hell's Ditch" is still a very good album, and the last one that Shane MacGowan would do with the band, even though MacGowan would later disown much of this record.
The new remastered version of "Hell's Ditch" is wonderful. Jem Finer's "The Bastard Landlord and Curse of Love," make their mark again. Shane MacGowan contributes the beautiful "Infinity" and the excellent intrumental "Squid Out of Water." The Pogues reunited with the Dubliners to record "Whiskey In the Jar" and probably the best bonus cut goes to The Pogues/Dubliner's duet of "Jack's Heroes." Also the 1991 version of "A Rainy Night In Soho," is on here as well.

This is my favorite Pogues album (Red Roses is a close second) but does anybody share my opinion that some of these remasters really rob the music of a certain vital quality? To my ears it seems that by bringing each individual instrument into more enhanced clarity it robs the overall sound of it's cohesive buzz. I'm all for remastering and the bonus tracks are a tasty addition but on this album, Red Roses, and Peace and Love (also underrated in my opinion) they really do the music a disservice- wankers. Like I say, these are great for the bonus tracks but if you have the original masters my advice is to hang on to them. By the way- you don't need to be piss drunk to enjoy the Pogues.

Contrary to what the description says, Shane MacGowan is on this album, but only on about half the tracks. The following album, 'Waiting for Herb', is the first without Shane (and it's terrible). This album isn't great, but there are a few very good tracks on it. The addition of the bonus tracks 'Jack's Heroes' and 'Rainy Night in Soho' are worth the price alone (and bump my rating from 3 stars to 4).

When you hear all Pogues albums in a row you can tell something is happening to Shane Macgowan. On "Red Roses For Me" he sounds sharp intense and clear. When you get all of the way to "Hell's Ditch" he sounds muttled confused worn out and his voice has more of a gutteral sound. What's so bad you can hear it progressively get worse in each album and it starts getting very noticeable on the "Peace and Love" CD. This is a better album than "Peace and Love" but the vocals are harder to listen to. 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.