Best Pogues Albums: The Complete Studio Discography, Ranked And Reviewed

6: ‘Waiting For Herb’ (1993)

Even The Pogues’ most optimistic fans felt the group wouldn’t be able to continue following the loss of the beleaguered Shane MacGowan in 1991. However, his bandmates had other ideas, and they pulled off a real coup when they returned with Waiting For Herb. Rich, confident and diverse, this 1993 album featured plenty of splendid folk-punk fare (Haunting, The Smell Of Petrol) but also continued with the stylistic deviations of previous efforts Peace And Love and Hell’s Ditch (the Balkan-flavoured Drunken Boat, the Arabian-tinged The Girl From Wadi Hammamat). MacGowan’s departure also forced Spider Stacy into centre-stage; he coped admirably on straighter, rock-inclined material such as the anthemic, Clash-like Modern World and the sturdy Tuesday Morning, the latter even rewarding The Pogues with an unexpected UK Top 30 hit and significant radio play in the US.

Must hear: Tuesday Morning

5: ‘Peace And Love’ (1989)

A gold-selling UK Top 5 record, The Pogues’ fourth album, Peace And Love, yielded commercial success, but it was significantly more difficult to make than its predecessor, If I Should Fall From Grace With God. The strain is most apparent in Shane MacGowan’s vocal delivery, which is notably frailer here than on his band’s previous recordings. His alcohol intake was also impacting on his songwriting prowess, but even though the album’s writing credits were rather more evenly dispersed than on previous outings, Peace And Love still featured plenty to cherish. Highlights include Jem Finer’s sweeping ballad Misty Morning Albert Bridge, Terry Woods’ potent ska-folk hybrid Young Ned Of The Hill and MacGowan’s Down All The Days: a heartfelt tribute to the revered Irish writer and painter Christy Brown.

Must hear: Down All The Days

4: ‘Hell’s Ditch’ (1990)

If Peace And Love was a difficult record for The Pogues to finish, its follow-up, Hell’s Ditch, was like pulling teeth. During recording, in the summer of 1990, Shane MacGowan’s physical decline was a worry for all concerned, with co-producer Joe Strummer having to painstakingly compile most of his vocals from a patchwork of different takes. Against the odds, though, everything came up roses on Hell’s Ditch, a record which sits proudly among the best Pogues albums. The band are on top form throughout, and the songs (mostly MacGowan originals) are lyrically vivid and uniformly excellent. Several of the best (Sayonara, The House Of Gods, the gentle, sax-enhanced Summer In Siam) were inspired by a trip MacGowan had recently taken to Thailand, though Lorca’s Novena – an ominously terse commentary on the murder of the poet Federico García Lorca by Franco’s Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War – arguably remains the album’s most arresting moment.

Must hear: Lorca’s Novena

3: ‘Red Roses For Me’ (1984)

Initially trading as Pogue Mahone – a phrase which translates as “kiss my arse” – The Pogues may have rechristened themselves after a producer at BBC Radio Scotland complained about their original name, but it’s about the only compromise they made on their rambunctious debut album, 1984’s Red Roses For Me. Recorded in just two weeks, it benefits from then manager Stan Brennan’s no-frills production, which perfectly captures the rawness of The Pogues’ early folk-punk sound in all its blood- and spittle-flecked glory. The band’s instrumental dexterity cast covers of ancient Irish folk songs such as Waxie’s Dargle and Brendan Behan’s prison lament, The Auld Triangle, in their own image, but it was the enduringly bawdy brilliance of Shane MacGowan’s original numbers, such as Boys From The County Hell, Dark Streets Of London and the irrepressible Streams Of Whiskey, that confirmed beyond reasonable doubt that a truly singular talent had landed.

Must hear: Streams Of Whiskey

2: ‘Rum, Sodomy And The Lash’ (1985)

The raw, rebellious Red Roses For Me showed that The Pogues had hit on a sound that was uniquely theirs, but while that made for a wondrously rampant hoolie of a debut, the band soon revealed they had more to offer than merely booze, thrills and adrenaline. Capturing Shane MacGowan blossoming into a writer of real substance and further finessed by Elvis Costello’s sympathetic production, The Pogues’ superb second album, Rum, Sodomy And The Lash, still featured plenty of the group’s trademark rousing singalongs (Billy’s Bones, Navigator, the joyful Sally MacLennane), but it also saw the band excel on satisfyingly diverse MacGowan-penned tracks such as the epic The Sick Bed Of Cuchulainn and the viscerally stark tale of drug addiction and sex work that is The Old Main Drag. There’s also a wistful cover of the traditional music-hall tune I’m A Man You Don’t Meet Every Day, sung with feeling by bassist Cait O’Riordan. A gold-selling UK Top 20 hit despite another provocative title, Rum, Sodomy And The Lash remains a creative high-water mark among the best Pogues albums, and it deservedly delivered the group to a much bigger audience.

Must hear: The Old Main Drag

1: ‘If I Should Fall From Grace With God’ (1988)

Creatively, The Pogues remained on an upward trajectory for a remarkable first five-year spell, culminating with the release of their majestic third album, If I Should Fall From Grace With God. The fact the band chose a new producer, Steve Lillywhite (U2, Siouxsie And The Banshees), initially raised a few eyebrows, but it proved an excellent decision, for not only was Lillywhite sensitive to what The Pogues did best, his production also added a clarity and packed the kind of punch the band’s music demanded. It all came together here, too, because Shane MacGowan was still focussed on his art, and his bandmates really were firing on all cylinders.

If I Should Fall From Grace With God was released in the wake of the band’s iconic Kirsty MacColl collaboration, Fairytale Of New York, which narrowly missed out on the UK’s coveted Christmas No.1 spot. Inevitably, the song is also this record’s centrepiece, but it isn’t the only reason why If I Should Fall… tops this list of the best Pogues albums. All the participants bring their A-game on heady and beautifully realised material, with the ghostly, Middle Eastern-flavoured Turkish Song Of The Damned, the politically charged Birmingham Six and the heartfelt Irish diaspora hymn Thousands Are Sailing adding lustre to this career-defining work.

Must hear: Turkish Song Of The Damned

Buy The Pogues’ ‘The Best Of The Rest’ on limited-edition green vinyl.