Rum Sodomy & the Lash by The Pogues

Rum Sodomy & the Lash, the Pogues' second album, came out on 5 August 1985, a year after Red Roses for Me, and it's the sound of a London pub band that fell for Irish traditional music and then booted it through the door with punk. Elvis Costello produced, and he mostly had the sense to stay out of the way. Shane MacGowan sings like a man propping up the bar at closing time, Spider Stacy's tin whistle skirls over the din, James Fearnley's accordion wheezes and heaves, Jem Finer's banjo clatters along and Cait O'Riordan's bass keeps the whole reeling contraption upright.

The record lurches between rowdy stompers like "Sally Maclennane" and bruised, grieving ballads: "A Pair of Brown Eyes" grows out of an older Irish melody, and "Dirty Old Town" gets dragged through the gutter with real affection. It reached number 13 in the UK, and "The Old Main Drag" later turned up on the soundtrack to My Own Private Idaho.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.