Originally published by L.S. Media. March 7th 2012.
L.S. Media Rating ****
Unless you go looking specifically for The Popes, it would be understandable to many that they really haven’t heard anything by them. It is a huge shame, understandable, but a huge and utter disgrace none the less.
The band’s newest album New Church is nothing short of astonishing. It is a complete revelation and one that is worth exploring in depth and with an open and honest heart.
Formed initially by Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan, the band has long since left that association behind and with lead vocalist and guitarist Paul ‘Maddog’ McGuinness strongly and firmly at the helm over the last few years the band have become as much a spirit of Ireland as Damian Dempsey.
New Church contains songs that will have you reaching for that inevitable fiddle and thumping the table in honour of the band’s great songs that stalk and parade right through this album.
The album went on sale during the band’s highly rated support slot to The Stranglers on their 2012 tour. For many who attended those gigs the songs will be a gentle and tremendous reminder of what can be achieved with the right musicians. Songs such as The Queen of Manhattan or Hanging Up My Guns, with their wonderful poetic refrain and with its image of some of the high class ladies that live in the New York suburb delicately playing games with the listener’s head, will no doubt have all who hear it tap their feet in a loud appreciative manner. It’s not just exquisite; its smile inducing, it harks back to a time when you could walk into any bar in Dublin, Cork or Wexford and expect, almost by right, to hear a group of talented musicians waxing lyrical and with an obvious enjoyment in their gift and infectious in its delivery.
The Popes deserve a huge amount of credit for coming up with an album that plays straight to those with the right amount of musical appreciation but also to bringing a new level of joy to those fed up with the mainstream and banal. New Church is quite possibly the surprise find of the year so far.
Ian D. Hall