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Rating: When you achieve a worldwide success with an album, you no longer know what to do... You don't know which direction to take, whether to strike while the iron is hot or to change course completely. In any case, you are already certain you won't replicate the predecessor's results. After "Fisherman's Blues", even Mike Scott doesn't know what to do: abandon the Celtic sounds to return to pop rock, replicate that style with less inspiration and luck... What he decides for the next "Room To Roam" is the "right" (?) compromise between the two, which means including a couple of epic pop-rock tracks, some experimentation with folk to frame it, and shortening the average length of the songs (only three exceed three minutes) to make everything more accessible, particularly by reducing the duration of the most challenging pieces to the bone. Anything to not compromise the easy listening ambitions (and success).
And so, between one and a half minute tracks and two-minute tracks, it starts more or less as it ended previously: the lullaby "In Search Of A Rose", followed by "Song From The End Of The World", old-fashioned country, that hasn't evolved because it stayed on the island. Mike Scott's voice is more like that of a minstrel from Albion, rather than a Yankee cowboy. Much superior is "A Man Is In Love", delicate as a drizzle. The trusty electric piano alleviates every little pain, aided by an impeccable flute, finally an instrument to replace those shrill (and sometimes unbearable) Irish violins, which redeem themselves by taking over - along with all the Chieftains, one might say - in the final minute, more out of "stylistic consistency" than "beauty".
Not having rock, blues-rock, and soul-rock available, we must "settle" for appreciating the linear (and effective) melody of "Bigger Picture". Not wanting to spare us his screams, his gritty interpretations, his strained high notes anymore, we are left to pretend to appreciate the new vocality of Mike Scott: an octave lower, no high notes, no grit... the voice of a young priest who hasn't lost his hair yet, a "contemplative" voice of someone who observes from a third-person perspective, rather than someone who experiences... "Something That Is Gone" is Van Morrison at the most delicate moments of his career, but it's also old-fashioned American music, with Bacharach leading the way. The subdued electric piano, accompanied by a very original saxophone in its phrasing, skillfully finishes the first and creatively the second.
The music that was of Scott and company at the beginning of the journey called Waterboys returns in "A Life Of Sundays", an epic Christian rock as in the old days, but inevitably with a less rough execution... Unfortunately and inevitably, when the song is over, those freaking violins have to return... I mean, really! Just for once, can't we do without these violins? Especially where and when they're of no use at all? "Islandman" is the only epic filler, two electric and challenging minutes, but undoubtedly atmospheric.
The end of the "right (?) compromise", that is, the end of the attempt to blend the early Waterboys with those post-"Fisherman's Blues": from then on, they won't stray from the path even for a second... Restart with the traditional "The Raggle Taggle Gypsy": listen to it and ask yourself if Branduardi is an artist... I already have my answer. The single from the album "How Long Will I Love You?" is an unpretentious and pleasant folk rock up to the last note. In "Spring Comes To Spiddal" there is the only experiment of this second half of the album: Celtic folk fuses with Dixieland jazz, to describe the spring and the mood of the people of Spiddal, which incidentally is the seaside town where this album and its older brother from two years earlier were recorded. In "Further Up, Further In" Scott adds lyrics to an "instrumental traditional", while in the title track, folk merges with fairground sounds, as seen on the cover.
Another classic of modern folk, although entirely inferior to its predecessor, "Room To Roam" doesn't enhance the fame or glory (nor the bulges inside the pockets) of Mike Scott, who, tormented but at peace like an English-speaking St. Francis, will re-embrace the trusty electric guitar, bringing little (only one violin) of this folk debauchery with him, and will set off again, in search of the perfect pop song to sign as Waterboys. He will find it three years later, at the last stop before the breakup (which will be followed by a solo period and a reunion that lasts until today), and it will be titled "Glastonbury Song".
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 In Search of a Rose (01:20)
Where will I wander and wonder
nobody knows
But wherever I'm a-going I'll go
in search of a rose
Whatever the will of the weather
and whether it shines or snows
Wherever I'm a-going I'll go
in search of a rose
I don't know where it's found
I don't mind
As long as the world spins around
I'll take my time
I'll savour the softness of summer
I'll wrap up when winter blows
And wherever I'm going I'll go
In search of a rose
03 A Man Is in Love (03:18)
A man is in love, how do I know?
He came and walked with me, and he told me so
In a song he sang, and then I knew
A man is in love with you
A man is in love, how did I hear?
I heard him talk too much whenever you're near
He whispered your name when his eyes were closed
A man is in love and he knows
A man is in love, how did I guess?
I figuered it out while he was watching you dress
He'd give you his all, if you'd but agree
A man is in love and he's me
05 Bigger Picture (02:06)
I'm starting to see a bigger picture
I'm beginning to colour it in
I'm starting to see a bigger picture
I'm beginning to colour it in
My soul the sky, my heart a sun
my mind a world - my only one
My thoughts the people, the world around
My dreams the kings - or the clowns
I'm starting to see a bigger picture
I'm beginning to colour it in
I'm starting to see a bigger picture
I'm beginning to colour it in
The continents and the seven oceans
bound the range of my emotions
My time is long but not forever
My moods are the changing wind and weather
I'm starting to see a bigger picture
I'm beginning to colour it in
I'm starting to see a bigger picture
I'm beginning to colour it in
Colour it in !
Colour it in !
10 Islandman (02:58)
Of my body England is the spine
the backbone and the trunk
My shoulders span the mighty Tyne
London sprawls across my rump
Cornwall my crooked ancient leg
Wales two hands held apart
Scotland is my dreaming head
Ireland is my heart
11 The Raggle Taggle Gypsy (02:50)
(Traditional)
There were three old gypsies came to our hall door
they came brave and boldly-o
And one sang high and the other sang low
and the other sang a raggle taggle gypsy-o
It was upstairs downstairs the lady went
put on her suit of leather-o
And there was a cry from around the door
she's away wi' the raggle taggle gypsy-o
It was late that night when the Lord came in
enquiring for his lady-o
And the servant girl she said to the Lord
"She's away wi' the raggle taggle gypsy-o"
"Then saddle for me my milk white steed
- my big horse is not speedy-o
And I will ride till I seek my bride
she's away wi' the raggle taggle gypsy-o"
Now he rode East and he rode West
he rode North and South also
Until he came to a wide open plain
it was there that he spied his lady-o
"How could you leave your goose feather bed
your blankeys strewn so comely-o?
And how could you leave your newly wedded Lord
all for a raggle taggle gypsy-o?"
"What care I for my goose feather bed
wi' blankets strewn so comely-o?
Tonight I lie in a wide open field
in the arms of a raggle taggle gypsy-o"
"How could you leave your house and your land?
how could you leave your money-o?
How could you leave your only wedded Lord
all for a raggle taggle gypsy-o?"
"What care I for my house and my land?
what care I for my money-o?
I'd rather have a kiss from the yellow gypsy's lips
I'm away wi' the raggle taggle gypsy-o!"
13 Upon the Wind and Waves (01:25)
Andy tooks us down upon the keyside To board the silver boat Upon the Wind and Waves And Daniel he harrelted the boat And directed her well Across the Wind and Waves And Johnny took us on the boat He held the sails, he tied the ropes Upon the Wind and Waves And Desiree she watched the ocean Fair Upon the wind and Waves
16 Further Up, Further In (03:08)
I dreamed the wind came to my house
these are the words fell from his mouth
"The King you seek you'll find him true
but only if he rides the road with you"
I stepped aboard a ship that flew
it took me to wherever it wanted to
Far above the land, far above the sea
the dreamer and the doer agreed to agree
I was sent to the war, stripped of my power
gagged and imprisoned in a tall dark tower
I must have cried for an age or more
'till I saw through tears and I found the door
High on a cliff, in gorgeous clothes
a madman danced on the balls of his toes
Forgetting myself I fell at the feet
of the greatest Fool I ever did meet
The stars were bright and magic afoot
on the Summer wind rose the sound of a flute
I saw the musician - my heart knew him well
What happens next, no rhyme can tell
We came to the end of the world one day
a dolphin swan in a sheltered bay
I paid to the King what it was I owed,
put my face to the wind and my foot on the road
I find I've wandered far from home
but home is in me wherever I roam
I thought I was an hour or a year behind
but the hours and the years are only time
17 Room to Roam (00:56)
You go yours and I'll go mine the many ways we'll wend Many days and many ways ending in one end Many a wrong and its curing song many a road and many an inn Room to roam but only one home for all the world to win So you go yours and I'll go mine and the many many ways we'll wend Many days and many ways ending in one end
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