•
Rating: When someone plays and puts their soul into it, you notice immediately. They sing and play everything with such intensity that... And they get emotional, you can tell they get emotional... Two years after their debut, Mike Scott and his Waterboys bring to life "A Pagan Place", a genuine and heartfelt record. Guitar-driven and somewhat gospel, "windy" and dark as only a man from Dublin could be allowed, and not him who is from Edinburgh.
"Church Not Made With Hands", amidst pianos and brass, is a triumph; "All The Things She Gave Me" has a funky soul cadence, and when those good but weak guitars are joined by a gospel choir and a sax, you realize that rock soul across the Channel wasn't just "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" by you-know-who. Still, there's this sweet mixture of Afro and Celtic in the ballad "The Thrill Is Gone", where over a '60s soul flavor, the anguished voice of a rocker stirs and the strings of a violin, like those of the Chieftains we so adore, quietly vibrate.
According to the writer, the Waterboys are an icon of 1980s European rock. Try taking "Rags" and its guitars, and compare it to U2, those up to "The Unforgettable Fire", and let's see if I'm wrong... Then take the same track and compare it with a plethora of Manic Street Preachers' pieces... Then bring in The Alarm... Basically, pull out everything that is broadly British and, at the same time, wasn't London-based, and tell me if good music in the '80s needed London.
"Somebody Might Wave Back" is almost dance... If bands like Simply Red or Style Council had decided to raise the wall of sound like a rock band in the '80s, they would have sounded more or less like this. All of this fuels the doubts of those who consider Mike Scott a copycat rather than a "simple derivative artist." What I aim for are a skilled composer, a singer who works hard, musicians who are up to par, and someone who provides an atmosphere, that thing in which the listener - which would always be me - must immerse themselves, like in a sort of isolation tank...
In "The Big Music", an epic rock rhythm leaves room for black phrases: backing singers, notes of a blues guitar, brass marking the four quarters... The black side insinuates, takes root, asserts itself and finally dominates. The track in question will be a huge success. Off the beaten path - and another successful single - the splendid "Red Army Blues", which navigates through a Moscow balalaika, laconic "oooh" of Russian choirs, and Western saxophones as Western as can be, proud and soprano like, say, in "Careless Whispers" by G. Michael.
They said to compare their records with those of U2 and Manic Street Preachers, well: take Mike Scott from the final title track, an epic folk piece: practically the Bono Vox of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "Pride" and, at the same time, the James Dean Bradfield of "You Stole The Sun From My Heart"... But it's not just to those who love these two bands that I recommend "A Pagan Place"... In the end, you don't need a real "predisposition" to listen to one genre or another to engage with Mike Scott... He is water, and everyone can benefit from it...
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
04 Rags (05:21)
Everything is rags
And there's nobody to blame but me
And it would be so easy
If there was no one to hurt but me
But now everything that I do
Coming out of me will just tear through you
In and out of you
Up and down your life like a curse
Cast by the only Son of Rags
Who would wrap you up in all the finest tatters
Though he wanted nothing more, my loved one
Than to wrap you up in joy
But it'd never be with me
You and I are like two worlds
Not meant to collide
Death to each other
In the unravelling of time
So how do you..how do you...
How do you...how do you like it?
What kind of...what kind of...
What kind of dream would you call it
To have one foot in Eden
One foot in Hell
To be always numb
Plagued by demons
Summoned by angels
At the same time endlessly?
But I will
Burn me
Right out of this place
I will lay you down to sleep
So when you awake
I'll be gone and
You
Will remember
Nothing
06 The Big Music (04:45)
I have heard the big music
and I'll never be the same
Something so pure
just called my name
I have drowned in the big sea
now I find I'm still alive
And I'm coming up for ever
shadows all behind me, ecstacy to come
I have
climbed the big tree
Touched the big sky
I just stuck my hand up in the air
And everything came into colour
like Jazz mana from sweet, sweet chariots
I have seen the big mountain
and I swear I'm halfway there
(You'll never get there, you'll never get there, you'll never get there)
But I will, I will always climb the mountain
because...
I have heard the big music
and I'll never be the same
Something so pure
has called my name
08 A Pagan Place (05:13)
How did he come here?
Who gave him the key?
Slipped it in his hand
so secretly
And who put the colour
like lines on his face?
Brought him here
to a pagan place
Now who shot his arrow?
how high did it fly?
When he tipped it with poison
did he even know why?
What unseen hand
brought him face to face to face to face with
All this and more
in a pagan place?
Come into my parlour
sail in at my shore
Drink my soul dry
there is always more
There is always more after now
fly on my carpet
Look into my face
see the heart of man
in a pagan
in a pagan
in a pagan
in a pagan
in a pagan
pagan...
Loading comments slowly
