Songs from the Mardi Gras is the third and last solo album of former Undertones singer Feargal Sharkey and was released in early 1991 on Virgin Records.[1] Despite the somewhat non-commercial character of the music, the single "I've Got News for You" did make it into the UK Top 20.[2]
Speaking of the album and decision to finish his solo career afterwards, Sharkey told The Telegraph in 2013: "It's gonna sound quite kind of pathetic in many ways, but it was what I was feeling at the time; the last album I made emotionally I put a colossal amount into it, and I just felt I could not go on making that kind of intellectual and emotional investment anymore."[3]
Upon release, Adam Sweeting of The Guardian wrote: "Despite the nostril-assailing whiff of career-calculation, Songs from the Mardi Gras is at least a good deal better than its predecessor, the deplorable Wish."[6]Hi-Fi News & Record Review considered the album to "prove that the days of The Undertones are wiped from [Sharkey's] memory and he is definitely a man of the world - money-minded, star-struck and shallow." They concluded: "Songs from the Mardi Gras is about as intelligent a title as the lyrics on this album deserve."[7] Barry McIlheney of Q described it as "determinedly grown-up and quite frantic in its attempt to be easy listening".[1]
Charles Rose, Jim Horn, Mike Haynes, Quitman Dennis – horns
Beverley Skeete, Bob DiPiero, Greg Barnhill, Janice Hoyte, John Scott Sherrill, Johnny Cobb, Jonell Mosser, Kathy Burdick, Lisa Silver, Vicki Hampton – background vocals
