25-05-2019, 19:42
THE WATERBOYS - Where the Action is
![[Image: image.jpg?c=PuBZdlflVk2i7Nz4JoyI9SpQg_7i...xGXts=&f=5]](https://rovimusic.rovicorp.com/image.jpg?c=PuBZdlflVk2i7Nz4JoyI9SpQg_7iAU1wjqLgK_xGXts=&f=5)
The Waterboys have gone all smooth and dancey – it’s kinda strange! No journey under the skin this, sadly - I preferred the rougher edges, I think – unused to such slick production from these gentlemen. However, if I hadn’t heard them before, I would have been a little more enchanted, I suspect, and Mike Scott is as articulate and erudite as ever … except … horror of horrors, they do a rap song! What the actual??! Oh, ok – it’s in the fine print – it does say ‘an entertainment in sound by WATERBOYS’ on the cover – and to be honest, I could deal with it – hip hop vibes – can you believe?? There are some real catchy numbers, there’s energy and ease and there are some good sounds (even if it's all a tad confusing) – “Ladbroke Grove Symphony”, for example, which is what a resurrected and revamped version of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers might conceivably come up with. Then again, there are also some oddly dated sounding songs, and I don’t mean retro.
By the end of it all, I had redeveloped a sense of humour and I concede that it wouldn't be torture to listen again, even if I am not inclined to want to make a purchase. The closing track is a reading, the spoken “Piper at the Gates of Dawn” which is an excerpt from Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows. At least Scott is still paying homage to great classical literature and he hasn’t lost the ability to spin a good story himself … there remain a few things to be counted upon!
The Waterboys have gone all smooth and dancey – it’s kinda strange! No journey under the skin this, sadly - I preferred the rougher edges, I think – unused to such slick production from these gentlemen. However, if I hadn’t heard them before, I would have been a little more enchanted, I suspect, and Mike Scott is as articulate and erudite as ever … except … horror of horrors, they do a rap song! What the actual??! Oh, ok – it’s in the fine print – it does say ‘an entertainment in sound by WATERBOYS’ on the cover – and to be honest, I could deal with it – hip hop vibes – can you believe?? There are some real catchy numbers, there’s energy and ease and there are some good sounds (even if it's all a tad confusing) – “Ladbroke Grove Symphony”, for example, which is what a resurrected and revamped version of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers might conceivably come up with. Then again, there are also some oddly dated sounding songs, and I don’t mean retro.
By the end of it all, I had redeveloped a sense of humour and I concede that it wouldn't be torture to listen again, even if I am not inclined to want to make a purchase. The closing track is a reading, the spoken “Piper at the Gates of Dawn” which is an excerpt from Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows. At least Scott is still paying homage to great classical literature and he hasn’t lost the ability to spin a good story himself … there remain a few things to be counted upon!
"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us." ~ Bill Watterson