Waiting for Herb by The Pogues

Waiting for Herb, the Pogues' sixth album, came out in 1993 with Michael Brook producing, and it was their first without Shane MacGowan, whom the band had dismissed during a 1991 tour as his drinking and drug use took a toll on their shows. After a spell with Joe Strummer out front, tin-whistle man Spider Stacy stepped up to sing, and Jem Finer took on most of the writing.

The rest of the London band chipped in too, with James Fearnley, Andrew Ranken and Darryl Hunt writing for the Pogues for the first time, and Ranken singing "My Baby's Gone". The music keeps pushing past the Irish tradition they started from: this is only their second full-length without a single traditional tune. "Smell of Petroleum" plays off a tale from Bertrand Russell's A History of Western Philosophy, and "Tuesday Morning" gave them their first Top Twenty hit since "Fairytale of New York". One more album, Pogue Mahone, followed before the split.

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