Various: Sons Of Rogues Gallery

Featuring 140 minutes of seafaring music – or ‘Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys’ – Son Of Rogues Gallery is the wayward follow-up to the acclaimed Rogues Gallery compilation released in 2006. First conceived by Pirates Of The Caribbean director Gore Verbinski and the ubiquitous Johnny Depp, and produced by Hal Willner, the original double-album featured the likes of Sting, Bono, Bryan Ferry, Richard Thompson, Nick Cave and various others.

You might think that they’re really overstretching the concept with a second set, but, amazingly, Sons is just as good as the maiden Rogues voyage. Produced once again by Willner, Sting, Bono and Ferry aren’t featured this time round (though Cave makes the cutlass), but there’s an impressive host of new names (all) aboard.
Proceedings begin with Shane MacGowan croaking his way through ‘Leaving Of Liverpool’, musically backed by Depp and Verbinski. It’s truly fucking awful – so much so that it’s practically a work of near genius (the kind of stunt that only the Pogues frontman can get away with). From there on in the mood varies, but it’s still a pretty wild ride through uncharted, and often choppy, waters.
Not everything works – though that’s obviously a matter of personal distaste – but there are a number of treasures. Iggy Pop sings probably the bawdiest song ever in ‘Asshole Rules The Navy’; Michael Stipe and Courtney Love duet brilliantly on ‘Rio Grande’; Tom Waits delivers a stunningly doomy ‘Shenandoah’, with Keith Richards backing on guitar. Patti Smith, Gavin Friday, Beth Orton and the late Frank Zappa also acquit
themselves well.
An intriguingly gloomy collection of hits, misses, shits and pisses, this is the perfect album for a long car journey, sea voyage, prison stay, or dark night of the soul. One thing, though; they can’t really complain if it gets pirated.