IF I SHOULD FALL FROM GRACE WITH GOD marked an apex for the Pogues--with producer Steve Lillywhite at the helm, their neo-traditional Irish songcraft was given a particularly timeless touch without compromising any of the band's trademark intensity. Adding yet another wrinkle of the Irish experience to his profound, intense lyrical oeuvre, Shane MacGowan touches on the Irish in New York, occasionally conjuring up reminders of George M. Cohan (who even gets name-checked here, on "Thousands Are Sailing"). "Metropolis" is a jazzy, brass-fueled instrumental, while the over-the-top sentimentality and swirling strings of "Fairy Tale of New York" made it an instant Christmas classic. From the irreverent bravado of the opening title track straight through to the jokey, fatalistic closer, "Worms," IF I SHOULD FALL is a rollicking, sometimes brutally honest document, driven hard by the band's inspiringly tight, masterful playing and propelled by the raspy vocal and compelling lyrical attack of MacGowan. "Bottle Of Smoke" is a breakneck thrill ride about a celebratory victory at the horse races, while "Streets Of Sorrow/Birmingham Six" finds Shane in a rare moment of political rant.

Burgess was a kind of Jascha Heifetz of the Scots pipes, a child prodigy who by 15 had won the Gold Medal for pibroch -- the heart of ceol moir, the esoteric classical music of the Scots pipes. This extremely welcome CD, drawn from Burgess's first two '70s LPs for Topic Records, contains superb examples of both ceol moir and the rich heritage of reels, strathspeys and other dance forms. ~ John Storm Roberts, Original Music