Editorial Reviews
Music Review:
Music Review
Amazon.com
The Rare 'Oul Stuff--a compilation of B-sides and key album tracks recorded by Shane MacGowan with post-Pogues backing band the Popes and spanning the years 1994 to 1998--is unlikely to enhance the singer's public profile, but only because it doesn't contain any of the songs that temperance-favoring laymen are likely to remember. Thus, there's no sign of the minor hits "My Way," "Haunted," or "That Woman's Got Me Drinking" but, perversely, certain noncharting A-sides are included. The best of these is the cinematically scored "You're the One" (cowritten with Michael Kamen), a duet with Maire Brennan which juxtaposes the Clannad singer's windswept, virginal vocal sensuality with Macgowan's Gainsbourg-esque cragginess--an unlikely artistic match. On the other hand, "Christmas Lullaby" is just dismal. Elsewhere, fans of fornication-flavored vocabulary, rebel songs (the historical "Roddy McCorley" and the more controversial "Paddy Public Enemy Number One," a tribute to deceased Irish Republican Dominic McGlinchey), blazing tin whistles, and banjos can't go wrong--even if the version of "Danny Boy" is a case of too much Shane. --Kevin Maidment
Album Description
21 track UK compilation of singles and more includes 'You're The One' featuring the stunning vocals of Naire Brennan, taken from the film 'Circle Of Friends' & the more traditional 'Danny Boy'. 2001.