The Pogues Red Roses for Me (1984)

O’Riordan once told an interviewer that being a teenager gave her huge confidence for her recorded debut. The punkiness of the Pogues’ debut album is one thing, but traditionalists would point to O’Riordan’s fluffed notes in the otherwise fine single ‘Dark Streets Of London’ as elements which could have been smoothed out. That said, for a relative novice on the instrument, the bassist has a real feel both for the music and the genres. The odd descending major step turn and energetic, simple fifths, firsts and fourths keep the album moving on. It’s aggressively dancey, challenging and traditional all at once; somehow the chaos that appears to be just around the corner never quite arrives. O’Riordan’s solid, simple lines provide a sterling basis for the banjos and that irrepressible MacGowan vocal, not least on ‘Waxies Gargle’ and the reeling, roaring ‘Down In The Ground Where The Dead Men Go’, a particularly punked-up piece of Poguiness.