The Pogues – If I Should Fall from Grace with God (1988)

[Album 29/1001]

If Prince’s Purple Rain, album 26/1001, was tough to classify (is it rock? pop? funk?), finding a genre for If I Should Fall from Grace with God may be an even more daunting task.

Among the thirteen tracks, there is:

– The Pogues’ trademark folk/punk sound (Bottle of Smoke), 
– Middle Eastern instrumentation (the unbelievably catchy Turkish Song of the Damned),
– A verse of Spanish lyrics (Fiesta),
– and a hit Christmas song unlike any other. 

Fairytale of New York is one for the books.  The gorgeous string arrangement matched up with some, shall we say, atypical holiday lyrics.  Nice duet & contrast between Kristy MacColl’s vocals & Shane MacGowan’s gruff delivery.

He won’t win many awards for note clarity but there’s a certain charm nonetheless to MacGowan’s unpolished vocals.

Perhaps a bit front loaded, but no major misses in this uptempo set.  As a result, If I Should Fall from Grace with God works quite nicely as a soundtrack for a long distance run.