Ireland's prodigal son, or whiskey-sodden tragedy case? As frontman for the Pogues, Shane MacGowan always managed to combine the two into one gloriously drunken whole. It's the tracks on The Very Best Of, drawn from The Pogues' two most celebrated albums--Rum, Sodomy and the Lash and If I Should Fall from Grace with God--that find the band on top form; see the drunken Yuletime feud of "Fairytale of New York" featuring the late Kirsty MacColl, or the violent pint-downer of "The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn". A look beyond the drinking songs, however, and it may come as a surprise to many that MacGowan's lyrics touch on The Big Themes--romance, misery, pride and self-destruction--with a rare eloquence; the raw emotions played out in the likes of "The Old Main Drag"--a bare, honest tale of poverty and addiction, the young MacGowan "spat on and shat on and raped and abused"--are a reminder that the Pogues may have been seldom sober, but they were never anything less than utterly human.