The Pogues - Rum Sodomy & The Lash (Vinyl)

The 1985 second album, and the one that took the Pogues from bar band to something mythic. Produced by Elvis Costello, who deliberately kept things raw and live, it's where Shane MacGowan's songwriting fully arrived: The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn kicks the doors in, A Pair of Brown Eyes and The Old Main Drag are among the most devastating things he ever wrote, and their reading of Dirty Old Town became the definitive one. Traditional Irish music played with pure punk attitude, and forty years on it still sounds untouchable. The title comes from Churchill's line about naval tradition.

Q magazine called it "a proud, defiant bruise of an album" and MacGowan's finest hour. 

Tracklist

1. The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn
2. The Old Main Drag
3. Wild Cats of Kilkenny
4. I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day
5. A Pair of Brown Eyes
6. Sally MacLennane
7. Dirty Old Town
8. Jesse James
9. Navigator
10. Billy's Bones
11. The Gentleman Soldier
12. The Band Played Waltzing Matilda