Waiting For Herb (Remastered & Expanded) [Original recording remastered, Extra tracks]

The first post-Shane MacGowan Pogues album certainly provides interesting results.

Following the sacking their flagging frontman in 1991, the Pogues had seemingly eliminated what they thought was their only obstacle to retrning to their former glory. With MacGowan no longer producing consistent material and vocals in terms of quality and quantity, other band members had to provide original compositions and vocals to make an album's worth of songs. This was a duty which they rose to superbly, with the writing talents of Jem Finer,Phillip Chevron amd Terry Woods being shown on a Pogues album for the first time, and the punky voice of Spider Stacey providing the perfect alternative to the MacGowan snarl. So good were Stacey's vocal substitutions that he assumed the role of lead singer for this album and the subsequent release, Pogue Mahone.

With all this in mind, the Pogues should in theory have produced an album of an extremely high quality, with no longer having to accomodate for an increasingly wayward Shane the remaining band members could showcase their own original material whilst maintaining that quintessential "Pogues factor".

What we get instead is the band attempting to distance themselves from the MacGowan style booze-driven punk beats, and experiment in all sorts of musical genres, with varied success.

The opening number "Tuesday Morning" is essentialy a pop song enthused with Irish instrumentation and a punk-style vocal delivery. It is a pefectly adequate track and provided the band with their first top-20 hit since 1987, although this is not a sound that you would expect from The Pogues at all.

Things get a whole lot more unexpected as the Pogues try their hand at all-out rock music in "My Baby's Gone" which sounds frankly odd, with the Irish instumentation not fiting the style very well at all. Things get very Russian-sounding with "Drunken Boat" a 6-minute tale of madness which is about 4 minutes too long. We get some asian-sounding stuff in "Girl Form The Wadi Hammamat" and "Modern World", which really doesn't fit into the Pogues spectrum in the slightest.

"Sitting On Top Of The World" has an intro almost identical to that of "Tuesday Morning" and is again very mainstream, along with "Smell Of Petroleum". The latter is a perfectly acceptable track, just not the exceptional material we've come to expect from this band.

The only Irish sounding offerings are "Haunting" a very traditonal sort of reel sung by Terry Woods, and "Small Hours", a slow plodding number which goes nowhere with some truly dull lyrics.

Their is no tin-whistle to be heard on this album at any point due to Spider Stacey assuming the role of vocalist, which is a great shame as it was a crucial component to the Pogues Irish-punk machine in album's gone by. This also gives the album even less of a "Pogues" feel, as an incredibly catchy whistle riff or two on every album was commonplacein the past.

Another thing that also strikes you is a complete lack of any rollicking Irish-enthused punky tunes on which the Pogues built their reputation. No song rises above a modersate tempo with the exception of "Drunken Boat" which is an oddity in itself and sounds more like Gogol Bordello than the Pogues.

The 3 bonus tracks are nothing special either. "First Day Of Forever" is a distinctly ordinary composition from the usually brilliant Phillip Chevron. When you consider that he wrote "Thousands Are Sailing" one of the finest Pogues songs, how he could only produce this mediocre track is anyone's guess. "Train Rolling On" provides an interesting listen with it's frequent changes in tempo and quality instrumentation; a rare highlight. "Paris St. Germaine" is another slow dirge hardly worth bothering with, very much a B-side track.

So The Pogues' first post-MacGowan album instead of showcasing the songwriting talents of the band members, produces a mish-mash of genres, few of which seem to fit the Pogues style and instrumentation, and simply highlights that without their genius of a frontman they are nothing more than an average pop group, lacking that extra "Pogues factor" which MacGowan provided on all 5 previous albums.

This album is certainly not bad, hearing the band experiment with different genres provides an interesting listen, but don't expect a return to the glory days of pure Poguetry and musical perfection. As an album, not bad. As a Pogues album, simply not good enough.

I don't actually think this album is at all average, as it is said to be, I just think it isn't reminiscent of what a Pogues' fan would imagine them doing. I mean, if this album was created by any other band that had no history of writing raw, energetic Irish punk songs, then it would be considered a good album.
I have to say I was expecting much the same sort of stuff on `Waiting for Herb' as had been on `Rum, Sodomy...' and `If I Should Fall...' However I think once MacGowan was no longer part of the band they decided to go more mainstream and pop in their style, still retaining the Irish instrumentation but playing them in what I would call a more `modern' way.
Many of the songs on this CD are very likeable, with the odd exception such as `Girl From the Wadi Hammamat'. By all means carry on the Asian theme evident in `Hell's Ditch', the Pogues album prior to `Waiting for Herb', but when you have three songs like it, it gets a very `the same' feel to it, and it isn't at all impressing.
One major gripe I have is the awful sound effects put on at the start of `Drunken Boat', `Girl From the ...' and `Pachinko'. These in some places are 40 seconds in duration which is far too long and it doesn't add anything to the song, if anything spoils it a bit because you have to wait for half a minute before anything actually happens.
Now, to the songs themselves. Personally, I can't stand a few, notably `Girl from the Wadi Hammamat' (which I guess you've already picked up) and `Small Hours', both of which in my opinion are tedious songs, whoever records them. `Small Hours' fails to tick any boxes for me as a music fan at all; it's just simply the most boring song I think I've heard. I'm not a great fan either of `Sitting On Top Of The World' nor `My Baby's gone', although I must say that `My Baby's Gone' could be an excellent track if recorded by a rock band. To be honest, I don't either of the last two tracks are anything special.
My two personal favourites off the original `Waiting for Herb' line-up before re-mastering are `Haunting' and `Drunken Boat', probably because these are the only two songs which retain a bouncy rhythm and an Irish feel, and are good to sing along with (although `Haunting' is so fast that this can be difficult!).
The bonus tracks I think are also quite good as songs. `First Day of Forever' is generally not bad although if you then think of the fact that it was written by Phil Chevron, it becomes slightly more mediocre. `Train kept Rolling On' is the best of the three bonus tracks by a mile and I can't see why it didn't make the original album. `Paris St. Germaine', is a song that I think would have been suited more with Terry Woods singing and without a dull concertina/tin whistle duet at the start.
To sum up: half-an-half - one half fun and catchy, the other half too pop & rock. It's not what the Pogues do and I don't think the experiments have worked. But I can't let this take anything away from the songs on the album that are decent...

It's not that Shane has a monopoly on the talent in The Pogues it's just that his is the talent so spectacular that it lifts The Pogues into a stratosphere all of their own. He is one of the greatest lyricists of all time, he sings with a world-weary drool that tears at your heart and makes you feel for the eternal cruelty of human existence. He makes you sympathise with monsters and angels equally and question your right to judge anyone.

So without Shane, The Pogues simply are not The Pogues. It's easy to forgive the rest of the band for eventually losing patience with their genius leader. His alcoholism leading to an increasing unreliability and mood swings. What cannot be forgiven when reviewing this album is the decision to continue the name of The Pogues. If they had come up with a new name and billed themselves as the band that used to be most of The Pogues then I'd be reviewing a moderately interesting punk/irish traditional concoction. I would probably have given it 3 stars. But by continuing the hallowed name they make the inevitable comparison unavoidable and the comparison is deeply unfavourable.

Save your money and spend it on any of the albums that feature the great man. Even Peace and Love - which I think most would agree is the weakest of the Shane era - is head and shoulders above this and the unbelievably even worse successor Pogue Mohane. Just thank the Gods that Pogue Mahone marked the end of the Shane-less Pogues and that the band are back to touring with Shane. Who knows they might get back in the studio one day and cut another masterpiece to match the first three records.