Customer Reviews

The Best of The Waterboys 81-90

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

At their best, The Waterboys matched the brilliance of founder Mike Scott's heroes like Patti Smith and Van Morrison, in creating poetic masterpieces with a spiritual essence/trancendent quality - "the Big Music" as Scott calls it. Examples are the dark, powerful Killing My Heart, the gentle ballad The Whole Of The Moon and the soaring Spirit. At their worst, they gave us singalong Celtic Folk like And A Bang On The Ear and others, but even these are rendered memorable by catchy melodies and the wonderful mix of instruments. Most of the songs fall somewhere inbetween, although the melodic A Man Is In Love and All The Things She Gave Me also stand with the Big Music. I'd really like to give it four stars, but an album with classics like Killing My Heart or Spirit deserves the full five!

I ordered this CD after having heard several cuts from "Fisherman's Blues," such as "Sweet Thing," "A Bang on the Ear," and the title track. I knew that the emsemble evolved through different styles in these ten years, but boy howdy, I didn't know just how much it evolved. The first several tracks are brash college-band tunes, albeit with Scott's more mature touches. I only enjoyed the more Celtic and folk flavored later tracks, and I therefore find myself skipping through the CD quite a bit. That being said, if you dig the early INXS sound, the earlier efforts are superb. The CD is absolutely an accurate representation of the group's music from '81 to '91, it just wasn't quite what I had hoped. The Waterboys just went through too many phases growing up. Caveat Emptor.

I love so many Waterboys songs and didn't want to replace all the DVDs I'd lost over the years. I was happy with this "Best Of" thing, because it had most of my old favorites included. If you're a Waterboys fan and want to re-visit some of the best of their work, this is worth the purchase.

This is one of those albums, that is so not what I normally listen to, and everytime I put it on, I love it even more. It's so refreshingly different from what's on the radio. I'm not sure where these guys are exactly from, but I can close my eyes and see them rocking some Irish/Scottish pub. The singers voice matches the music well, and it's all just a great mix of folk and rock, with traditional instruments. The song "Fishermans Blues" was in the opening scene of the movie "Waking Ned Devine", and fits well there and here. Another favorite is "And a Bang on the Ear". It's so good, as is the rest of the collection. "Whole Of The Moon" might be their biggest "hit". It's one I do hear on radio, though rarely. I don't agree with the oldest review here, that the early Waterboys are too noisy. But then again this isn't the Chieftains either. I suggest fishing for this cd, you might get hooked.