Rogue’s Gallery

Avast me hearties, if you have a taste for rum, plank walking and buried treasure pay heed. ‘Rogue’s Gallery’, a sort of unofficial soundtrack to Pirates of the Carribean (inasmuch as Johnny Depp and Gore Verbinski are ‘executive producers), assembles a motley crew of scurvy dogs who revel in pirate songs and sea chanteys. Land lubbers as diverse Nick Cave, Van Dyke Parks, Sting, Bono, Lou Reed and Jarvis Cokcer have all heeded the call of the sea and contributed tracks to what is a fascinating exploration of an almost unknown (in contemporary music at least) form of folk music. The two discs range from fairly standard folk interpretations to radical reworkings such as Nick Cave’s take on a sailor’s ode to venereal disease - ‘Fire Down Below’ – which dips and rolls like a tall ship in a raging gale. At two discs the sometimes repetitive album content requires a committed listen but buried treasures abound and make ‘Rogue’s Gallery’ well worth your pieces of eight!