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The Pogues - Waiting for Herb Audio CD

A fair review of the The Pogues "Waiting for Herb" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all The Pogues reviews here, or go back to the The Pogues tabs.

The Pogues Band: The Pogues
Title: Waiting for Herb
Rating:
Release Date: 1993-10-19
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Tuesday Morning 2: Smell of Petroleum 3: Haunting 4: Once Upon a Time 5: Sitting on Top of the World 6: Drunken Boat 7: Big City 8: Girl from the Wadi Hammamat 9: Modern World 10: Pachinko 11: My Baby's Gone 12: Small Hours

Not "for fans only" ....
Closer to "for non-fans only". .

The opinions of this album tend to fall into one of two camps:

1) Die-hard Pogues fans who are fairly offended by the band having booted out Shane MacGowan, keeping the band name in the absence of its most recognizable figure, and furthermore disgracing the band's name by by releasing an album that was more accessible and pop-oriented than prior Pogues albums.

2) People enjoy the music, which they find catchy and diverse.

I place myself firmly in the latter group. I gotta wonder if this album would have gone over so badly with many Pogues fans had it been released under a different band name, such as "Spider and the Somethingorothers".

"Real" Pogues or not, this album just has some wonderful songs, in a variety of different musical styles (almost every song stylistically different from each other), from infectious folk-pop ("Sitting On Top of the World") to a bouncy, Eastern-European sound that prefigured Gogol Bordello ("Drunken Boat"), some pleasant ballads, their almost obligatory middle-eastern influenced tune (the superb "Girl from the Wadi Hammamat"), even Americana ("My Baby's Gone," which has energy galore, and probably the worst American accent I've ever heard on a recording).

So, while I could understand why some fans might take offense to this being released as a Pogues album, the music stands up quite well on its own merits. Pop in this disc and enjoy Spider and the Somethingorothers!.


No Shane Just Shame
It fails any link to the real roots of their original works. Without a leading talent it fails to reach the dizzy heights of mrdiocrity - IT IS NOT THE POGUES !!! lacking in their vitality and spontaneity. It can only be described as, and should have been entitled, "Pogue Mockery". One star rating is generosity in excess.


Pogues Go Pop
" Having lost (fired) Shane MacGowan, the Pogues lost their edge, both musically and lyrically. From a "group" that reached stratospheric heights of songwriting in the past, this album is absolute garbage-- revealing the said group to be no more than "Shane and the Gang. Abandoning Shane's preference for weaving traditional and contemporary music into a seamless garment, the unShaned Pogues dive headlong into pop music played with traditional instruments. The results are bland and unmemorable at best-- and nauseating at worst.


What's that?


Everyone seems to be holding this to standards that it definately cannot stand up to. I'm at work, so I'll make this short. This is not the MacGowan Pogues that we all know and love. And yes, this release is a bit pop. With all that aside, there really are some damn good songs on this album. In fact, I would go as far to say that "Drunken Boat" is one of my all time favorite songs from any band. And I could only hope that there were some Pop artists out there today that could put something like this together. And I've actually shared this album with many friends who have never heard anything from the Pogues, and most of them are now diehard Pogues fans.

In my opinion (judging by many of the Shane MacGowan and the Popes and various other post-Pogues MacGowan releases that I have) the Pogues would not have sounded much like the Red Roses For Me-Pogues on this album had they kept Shane, anyway.


Pogues carry on without Shane.
Troubles with his rampant alcohol problem caused a deep rift within the band and it spread thorugh the members like wild fire. Waiting for Herb (1993) was The Pogues first album without their drunken leader Shane MacGowan. Several of them developed problems of their own and quickly moved to oust Shane from the band. Well the remaining Pogues staggered into the studio to record Waiting for Herb.

Spider replaces Shane and auxilary Pogue Joe Strummer on lead vocals. His song Tuesday Morning became a minor hit for the band. Finer and Woods picked up the bulk of the song writing duties. The tracks that appeared on the album are pretty good, but they lack the fire that drove the
previous albums. The other tracks are good (Smell of Petroleum, Once Upon a Time, The Haunting, Big City, Modern World). I have no idea why people have slagged this disc. The follow up I can understand.

Shane rejoined the band in late 1995. This was too much for Phillip Chevron, James Fernaly and Terry Woods. They quit the band and never returned. After the tour was over Shane quit the band (this time for good). The band was down to four (Spider Stacy, Andrew Ranken, Jem Finer and Darryl Hunt) and they picked up four new members and continued the Pogues.

The CD comes with a nice booklet with photos of the band members and a lyrics for the album's tracks.

Recommended for Pogues fans.


You can see a complete list of all The Pogues discography, or go back to the The Pogues tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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