If I Should Fall from Grace with God (1LP)

Combining the spirit of Punk with traditional Irish Folk music, The Pogues were one of the most radical bands of the 1980’s. Their instantly recognizable and politically tinged music helped them achieve 5 consecutive top 20 albums in the UK as well as producing the hit single ‘Fairytale of New York’ which is widely regarded as the greatest Christmas song of all time.

It took around two and a half years for The Pogues to follow up from their second album Rum, Sodomy & the Lash, and the result was the band’s highest charting album, peaking at number 3 in the UK. There were a number of personnel changes in the run up to this album’s creation. Steve Lillywhite came onboard to produce If I Should Fall From Grace With God, following on from Elvis Costello who produced the previous album. The band’s membership also changed, with bassist Cait O’Riordan (who married Costello) departing, and three new members joining; multi-instrumentalist Terry Woods, bassist Darryl Hunt, and guitarist Philip Chevron.

The album’s 13 songs represent a high water mark in the band’s career and capture The Pogues at the peak of their powers on “Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six,” a withering political track that got the band blacklisted by the British Independent Broadcasting Authority, along with MacGowan’s duet with Kirsty MacColl on “Fairytale Of New York,” a massive hit in the U.K. and U.S. Originally the other vocals were to be Cait O’Riordan, but after her departure from the band, Steve Lillywhite worked with acclaimed singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl, who were both married to each other. They worked tirelessly and meticulously at the home studio to perfect Kirsty’s vocals, which when presented to the band, blew them away.