The sticker stuck on the front of this baby states proudly, “Feat. Ex-member of The Pogues”, and now while Jamie Clarke did spend five years in our favorite London-Irish punksters, he only ever played on one CD, the last and the worst! So the stickers is just a tad misleading. Though I honestly think he and Perfect can stand up on their own accomplishments as musicians and songwriters and not need to rely on ex-memberships of anybody.

“Nobody is Perfect” is the follow up to last years “Sickly Men of Thirty of So….”, and the first on Germanys SPV Recordings (strangely best know as the home of past sell by date Heavy Metal). “Nobody is Perfect” is a classic mix of different influences all mixed together in a huge a gorgeous Irish Stew of contemporary Folk-Rock.
We have the pure Irish Ceilidh through the Marshall Stacks of opener “Medley”, then the Ballroom of Romance Irish waltz meets The Beatles of “Temptress”. The power rock cover of the Flammin Grooves, “Shake Some Action”. The nod to his ex-employers The Pogues, with an instrumental melody of “Turkish Song of the Dammed” and “Bottle of Smoke” that allows Pergray Zaric to show off his accordion talents. Christy Moore’s (well Jimmy McCarthy’s actually but Christy made it famous), “Ride On” with great leads from guest Hermann Frank is also covered. “Hungarian Dance”, allows Pregray to show off some more but this time his Balkan heritage along with his fine finger picking skills. “How the Mighty Have Fallen”, is the song that if the Gallagher Brothers had written Oasis wouldn’t have gone down the toilet, a perfect Lennon & McCartney Inspired piece of rock.

Nobody is perfect, but Perfect is dam close

October 2002