Claude says:The Pogues turned Irish folk into a reckless, whiskey-soaked charge on this '88 record—all fiddles and fury and Shane MacGowan's torn-up voice—and you've kept returning to "Fairytale of New York" across nearly seven years, which makes sense: it's the rare seasonal song that doesn't feel like a greeting card, more like running into an old love at a bar on Christmas Eve and remembering why it hurt.