After an Elvis Costello-produced album and subsequent fallout, The Pogues struck out alone for If I Should Fall from Grace with God. Flanked by their instruments and dressed up in dinner attire causes a whiplash-like contrast between this 1988 effort and their preceding album, Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash, which presented the band as bold countrymen with a hint of the historic about them. Strip those effective images away from them and what do you have? A very fine band with a point still to tell. Some of their best works, the defining track of their careers so closely tied to Christmas, can be heard on this. It may still be blasted out by Heart Radio but Fairytale of New York releases in album form as a post-Christmas blues number. It fits in perfectly with the rest of If I Should Fall from Grace with God, a damning album filled with passionate putdowns and discontent.
Bold momentum carries Shane MacGowan. What else would? Punchy Celtic fun but with a free-flowing form which allows for new routes through their big band sound. Its title track opener bleeds well into the Turkish instrumental influences of the aptly titled Turkish Song of the Damned. Punchy and upbeat but in the pub crawl style which benefitted their preceding albums. Where it may not seem like it has the rich histories of Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash, The Pogues prove there is depth to them yet. Bottle of Smoke is an outstanding story of gluttonous, gambling excess where the pay-off is found before the end of the song. There is a positive light shone on what may be perceived as the excesses of life and The Pogues, for better or worse, found the love and fun of those moments. Those first three songs are an exceptional precursor to the ballad-adjacent brilliance of Kirsty MacColl-featuring Fairytale of New York.
Even in those enlightened moments, the real joys of life, come a lash or bet which proves to be the precursor to any emotion. If I Should Fall from Grace with God is unapologetic in its indulgent manner and all the better for it. Metropolis is a perfect, noir-themed spill of whirring instrumentals before the end-of-the-decade influences pile into Thousands Are Sailing. A beautiful track in every way, the banjo-plucking falling into the background of looking for a new start, the changed names and charms of looking ahead. MacGowan displays pride in the world’s achievements and finds the sweeter highs of our human nature, the cultural and scientific cornerstones repackaged as local brilliance. The Americanisms feel like an after-effect of Costello’s production on The Pogues’ preceding album, his King of America influence stretching through If I Should Fall from Grace with God.
Fiery fun from start to finish and yet The Pogues still hold the swagger, the punchy rebellion of their earlier works, in the light joys of Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band-sounding swing. An Irish stream of consciousness sees through the thick of the fog, to provide brutal assessments of life at the time. They still stand today, firm and poised to leap into pub-going battle. If I Should Fall from Grace with God has a beautiful instrumental B-Side, a series of clangs and whistles which define the MacGowan vocal charms, often slurred but never misunderstood. His punchy lyrical touch has a hidden tenderness which is hidden below the big band appeal and extra tracks like The Battle March Medley go a long way in showing the skill of a band who would soon give MacGowan the boot.
