Ahoy, me hearties, for time has come to hoist the sail, raise the anchor, and sail into the wide blue yonder. Assembled by Hal Willner as an accompanying piece to the Pirates of the Caribbean flicks at the behest of producer Gore Verbinski and pin-up pirate Johnny Depp, Rogue’s Gallery is here to steal your gold, plunder your lands, and take your women as their own.

And it’s quite likely that all would happen given the personnel involved – with names like Bono, Lou Reed, Nick Cave, Lucinda Williams, Bryan Ferry, Sting, Javis Cocker and Van Dyke Parks involved in the process of bring these pirate ballads, sea song, and chanteys to life, how could it not be a guaranteed winner? Rogue’s Gallery is a wicked listen, full of tales of wine and woe.

Of course, it’s not just big names like those mentioned above who make appearances either – relative newcomers such as Antony, Rufus Wainwright (who duets with his mother, Kate McGarrigle, on a stunning rendition of “Lowlands Away”), Jolie Holland and Joseph Arthur more than hold their own. Baby Gramps gets it off to a rollickin’ start with “Cape Cod Girls”, and the one act really missing from Rogue’s Gallery is Australia’s own the Drones, whose convict ode “Sixteen Straws” would not sound entirely out-of-place here.

Over the course of two discs and a whopping forty-three tracks, Willner has assembled Rogue’s Gallery ever so deliberately, giving it a real narrative flow. Culled from in excess of seventy recordings, with several hundred songs mooted as possibilities for inclusion, there’s little doubt that if Rogue’s Gallery is a success then there could be one, two, or perhaps even three sequels. Can the Pirates... films possibly match the quality found here? It’s highly doubtful.