(Translated from my original Italian text by Gemini and Piero Scaruffi)
The Waterboys were one of the groups that contributed to renewing the decades-old school of British folk-rock, updating it to the post-punk demands of the 1980s.
The group was born in 1982, initiated by Mike Scott (vocals, guitar, and piano), who had already been active for years with various lineups, and Anthony Thistlewaite (saxophone). Although close to the Scottish folk movement, the group consisted of musicians also hailing from Wales and England and was based in London.
On the self-titled EP (Chicken Jazz, 1983), A Girl Called Johnny stands out above all, crossing the saxophone's TV-soundtrack verse with a piano gait reminiscent of Elton Johna bit "glam" and a bit "retro." Even more representative is the ballad December, which foreshadows the pathos of their maturity and in which Scott demonstrates good skills as a Bruce Springsteen imitator.
The first album, Waterboys (Ensign, 1983 - Chrysalis, 1986), confirms the merits and flaws of the operation, which is not very original even if well-packaged. The saxophone still stands out, stretched into a pressing rhythm and blues riff in the angry harangue of I Will Not Follow. Scott is a decent shouter, but not a very original one.
With Karl Wallinger on keyboards, the group recorded A Pagan Place (Ensign, 1984), arranged in a convoluted manner (in addition to saxophone and piano, a violin and a trumpet were added for the recordings). Springsteen's proletarian and emphatic rock dominates Church Not Made With Hands and Rags; meanwhile, his "glam" soul overflows in Big Music, where one seems to hear a David Bowie or a Roger Waters produced by Jim Steinman, complete with gospel backing singers. In the title track, only an amateur version of the operatic and symphonic rock of the latter remains, and in the painful lament of Red Army Blues, one seems to hear an eighty-year-old Bryan Ferry. Gospel and funky inflections also propel the folk-rock of All The Things She Gave Me, reminiscent of the more commercial dance-pop acts. Monstrously derivative, Scotts only merit is his lack of shame.
The leader's ambitions made This Is The Sea (Island, 1985 - Chrysalis, 1987) an album as varied as it was confused. If the "Spanish" trumpet solo (from a bullfighter movie) that opens Don't Bang The Druma pompous U2-style pop songis almost comical, and the baroque trumpets and piano progressions of The Whole Of The Moonthe most melodic track on the record (and perhaps their masterpiece)are stolen from the Beatles' Penny Lane, in other tracks the injection of blues and country results in an intriguing hybrid (the blues-a-billy Be My Enemy, one of their peaks). Tracks like Medicine Bow always leave the impression that Scott would have succeeded better if he had limited himself to imitating Elton John, while the boastful title track indulges in melodramatic atmospheres that offer no escape. It could be seen as an excellent record of parodies of trendy genres. This record nonetheless invents a new career for the group and finds a much wider audience.
Fisherman's Blues (Chrysalis, 1988) drastically changed course: the Waterboys suddenly became a predominantly acoustic folk group. Far from proposing an original vision of traditional music (as the Pogues had been doing for years), the Waterboys limited themselves to speculating on more or less suggestive sounds, counting on the fact that younger generations had never heard the Chieftains (And A Bang On The Ear), Van Morrison (Strange Boat), and the Dylan of Desire (the title track). Saving the record are the (masterful) contributions of violinist Steve Wickham. The record perhaps simply marks the moment when Scott, unable to assert an artistic personality, throws in the towel and resigns himself to a career of mediocre pub-folk.
Too Close To Heaven (BMG, 2001) collects the outtakes from those sessions.
In the meantime, Wallinger had left the group to form World Party.
Room To Roam (Chrysalis, 1990) continued the Waterboys' progression toward an increasingly rustic sound, mixing a bit of country and cajun into the recipe. But Scott's ballads are often soporific and comically serious (A Man Is In Love being the best).
Abandoned by everyone, Mike Scott recorded the album Dream Harder (Geffen, 1993) in New York with a handful of session musicians. Finally free from highbrow masks and simply in search of a pop refrain (which he finds at least in Glanstonbury Song and Preparing To Fly), Scott even convinces his fans of his own mediocrity, thinly veiled behind the melodramatic theatrics and embarrassing experiments of Spiritual City and The Return Of Jimi Hendrix.
Bring 'Em All In (Chrysalis, 1995) drops the mask and is released under his own name. Announced as a cathartic gesture (Scott plays all the instruments and recorded it in total humility), the record actually accentuates the defects of the previous one. The lyrics of some songs are worthy of a greedy reader of New Age books. The tribute to Dublin in City Full Of Ghosts must have made more than one Irishman blush with embarrassment. She Is So Beautiful and Bring 'Em All In are the most musical tracks.
Mike Scott (Chrysalis, 1997) and Still Burning (Minty Fresh, 1998) seem like cobbled-together anthologies of various leftovers rather than exercises in stylistic eclecticism.
Scott remains an unresolved character who has never demonstrated true talent but who must be given credit for having stubbornly sought it. This Is The Sea is probably the Waterboys' best album, and today one might suspect that Scott was not its true protagonist.
Whole Of The Moon (1998) is an anthology of the Waterboys and Scott's first two solo albums.
