Let it happen (The Waterboys) (LP 4599 - 4604)

The Waterboys  A Pagan Place (Vinyl, Island Records, 1984) **  

The Waterboys  This is the Sea (Vinyl, Island Records, 1985) **** 

The Waterboys  Fisherman's Blues (Vinyl, Chrysalis Records, 1988) **** 

The Waterboys  Room to Roam (Vinyl, Chrysalis Records, 1990) ****

The Waterboys  A Rock in the Weary Land (CD, BMG International Records, 2000) ****

The Waterboys  Modern Blues (CD, Harlequin and Clown Records, 2015) *****

Genre: Rock, folk rock

Places I remember: Chaldon Books and Records, JB Hi Fi, Hope family collection

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Long Strange Golden Road (Modern Blues)

Gear costume: The Whole of the Moon (This is the Sea) 

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7

Active compensatory factors: The Waterboys is a band I've come to appreciate thanks to my mate GK introducing me to their Modern Blues album (more of that later). Suffice to say, I have now found Mike Scott's unique approach a glorious one, and I've backtracked in a haphazard fashion since then.

Back in 1984, when their second album came out (A Pagan Place), The Waterboys wasn't the sole vision of Mike Scott. It was a band, and it was a band that included Karl Wallinger on keyboards (who would go on to pop glory with World Party).

It's a weird album, with a strong start (Church Not Made With Hands) and a strong finish with the title song. In between are some strident attempts at loud and big music - one song is even called The Big Music. It was an album of its time for sure.

Same goes for This is the Sea. It's dominated by the epic Whole of the Moon but the rest of the album sees the band at a peak moment for big music. Karl Wallinger must have thought so too because he left after it to pursue his own path with World Party (more on them coming eventually).

Fourth album, Fisherman's Blues introduced a change in approach from big music to traditional folk music of Ireland and Scotland. There was even some country in the mix. The title track was again my favourite song on the album.

For the most part it's a successful about turn (doe see doe) for the band (which was quickly becoming another word for Mike Scott) and the album has grown on me over time. I don't think it's perfect. That would come next.

Room to Roam continues the thrust to luxuriate in Celtic flavours first explored in Fisherman's Blues, but sounds more confident, more playful, looser, more effective. Mike Scott would soon abandon the folk rock stylings and again, he did so at a peak moment.

I don't have the next album (Dream Harder, which got poor reviews) and so we jump ahead ten years and welcome a newly reinvented sonic palette for Mike Scott and his travelling companions (a revolving door thing). 

By the time of A Rock in the Weary Land, Mike's voice had developed a husky richness in the ten years since the folk-rock albums. The music had also developed into a denser, more psychedelic approach.

Modern Blues is where I started generally and Long Strange Golden Road specifically. It has been a constant grower since GK suggested it for our Album of the Week.

It's a real peak album. Mike's guitar sound is superb on the songs bookending Modern Blues, his voice is in top form, the songs are all memorable with inspired lyrics and it ends with my favourite song of his - the twisting, turning, evolving, Long Strange Golden Road.

Neil McCormick of The Telegraph newspaper: "Modern Blues is a rich, aromatic stew of classic rock and beat poetics, with Scott on a quasi-mystical quest to comprehend his own muse and every band member playing out of their skins". Yeah baby, yeah!!

Where do they all belong? Here's to the peculiar genius of Mike Scott! I'll be sorely tempted to keep purchasing Waterboy albums post A Rock in the Weary Land.