Granted, Spidey is quite a character, but drunken whistle palying is hardly on par with some of the most well-written lyircs EVER, stunning arrangements and a vocal style that no one will ever match...

Spider was in Shanes very first band (before the Nips) and his talent(?) was banging himself in the noggin with a beer tray...this is very impressive, indeed. Spider once said the Pogues didn't need Shane to continue...well, after the misery that was "Pogue Mahone" I think he came to his senses. Spider and Shane were and are lifelong friends, but Shane was an irreplaceable part of the classic "Poguetry" sound and could NEVER be replaced.

As for the album, it's pretty good, but it aint the Pogues I know and love...it was like the Clash without Mick Jones. Speaking of the Clash, if Joe Strummer couldn't fill Shane's shoes (and he sang with the Pogues for a stint) how did Spider think he could pull it off?

Stellar.
...The Pogues are (were) a great band. This album is excellent from beginning to end, granted sans the punk element that Shane brought, but so what. Tuesday Morning, Once Upon a Time, Small Hours are touching without being sentimental, and The Modern World, Girl from Wadi Hammamat, and Pachinko are in keeping with The Pogues' interest in world music (so-called). This album is stellar musically, a hybrid of The Cheiftains and many of the artists from Peter Gabriel's RealWorld label.

This ain't the Pogues!
Imagine the Rolling Stones without both Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. They wouldn't be the Stones anymore, now would they? Well, that's how I feel about the Pogues without Shane MacGowan. When the Pogues fired MacGowan shortly before their 1991 U.S. tour, they not only lost one of their founding members, their best singer, and their only true "frontman" but also their best songwriter. Yes, MacGowan's infamous drug/alcohol problems had become too big of a problem to ignore, but the Pogues were not Van Halen. MacGowan was simply irreplaceable and anyone who says otherwise is absolutely clueless!

I bought "Waiting for Herb" back in '93 and looking back I think the only reason I purchased it was because of a kneejerk reaction that I had developed that required me to buy anything that said "Pogues." However, upon listening to its collection of mediocre pop-lite tunes my suspicions that the Pogues were truly dead as a band, which I had harbored since Shane's departure, were fully confirmed. This album was a failure on all accounts- the longtime fans didn't buy it and neither did any new audience emerge, which my guess is what the band was hoping for. After "Waiting for Herb" failed to find an audience, the Pogues released "Pogue Mahone"- a sort of "kiss and makeup" attempt to return to its old sound, but by then the diehard fans had moved on. After that the Pogues quietly called it quits and disbanded, but as any real Pogues fans can tell you that was a just a mere formality because the band had long before ceased to exist!

I shudder to think that this wretched album could be someone's introduction to the Pogues. Please if you're looking for a Pogues' CD then start with either 1987's "If I Should Fall from Grace with God" or 1985's "Rum, Sodomy, & the Lash," but give both "Waiting for Herb" and "Pogue Mahone" a wide berth.

If you don't compare it to older Pogues albums, you'll be OK
This album represents a major change from the earlier Pogues albumns. Without Shane McGowan, the band is not lost musically or creatively. "Tuesday Morning" is romantic without being mawkish. "Sitting On Top Of The World", "Modern World" and "My Baby's Gone" also work well, reminding one of a lot of the material on "Peace and Love". But it is also clear that the unique combination of Shane McGowan and the Pogues' musicians was what drove the band to be something truly unique, and that is lost here. The albumn's good, but it doesn't have the freshness or uniqueness of other Pogues albumns.

Pogues for a mature audience
What I really love about this album is the variety of styles. The Girl from the Wadi Hammamat? What kind of music is that anyway? On second thought, I don't care, I love it regardless. While it's true that not every single track is fantastic, the majority of it is pretty damn good. I first discovered the Pogues through listening to "The Stiff Records Box Set," and I was immediately hooked. I snatched up all their albums, and shortly after, this one was released.

I was stunned by the difference in the band after whatshisname left. But I didn't get into the band because of the "fantastic charisma" of Shane friggin' MacGowan, though I bought his solo CD as well. I liked the Pogues for their versatile instrumentation and knack for making both traditional-sounding original music and original-sounding traditional music. Those elements are not missing from this album. In fact, I was rather tired of the "old" Pogues anyway. After a few albums, everything started sounding the same to me.

This CD marks a turning point in the career of the band, and naturally some will hate it and prefer the older material. To hell with them. Yeah, sure, buy the old albums, but don't cheat yourself out of some of the gems here. There are tracks on every CD you'll skip, but you'll probably be hitting the "skip back" button to hear a few of these again.