Expanding the epic, multi-layered sound of A Pagan Place, This is the Sea is a more ambitious yet a more successful record, since it finds Mike Scott at his melodic peak. Consequently, the album has enough strong, accessible moments to make his indulgences forgivable.
This two-disc set of live recordings from throughout 1986 no doubt captures the Waterboys at their peak as a live band. It also offers a rare glimpse of leader Mike Scott in the transition period between the "big music" of the band's early albums and the folksy traditionalism of his and the band's most enduring work, Fisherman's Blues, which was just around the corner. Tracks from that album appear here, as do stirring renditions of Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Prince, and Bruce Springsteen songs. Traditional tunes and gospel numbers are covered to fine effect, too. Always ambitious, Mike Scott nearly grasps everything that's within his reach in these performances, his apprehensions about fame and his religious devotion be damned. The rambunctious punk energy of "Be My Enemy" and "Medicine Bow" is a tribute to fans of the band's past achievements, while "We Will Not Be Lovers" and "Fisherman's Blues" foreshadow what was then to be the brightest of futures. Whatever Scott has accomplished as a solo artist or with his later variations of the Waterboys, these 18 exciting performances prove beyond a doubt that the greatness that just barely escaped Mike Scott's extended hand he did indeed deserve, at least for the length of a tour in 1986.
After two albums of neo-traditional Irish music, Mike Scott brings The Waterboys back to the big rock sound of earlier albums like This is the Sea. Coming after the remarkably accomplished Fishermen's Blues and Room to Roam, Dream Harder is a bit of a disappointment. Its best material doesn't carry the same weight as compositions from Blues -- compare the simple beauty of Fishermen's Blues' "Has Anyone Hear Seen Hank" to Dream Harder's overblown "The Return of Jimi Hendrix." Scott can still bang out some good songs, but on Dream Harder there aren't as many as on previous efforts.
The Waterboys' departure from the self-described "big music" of the early to mid-'80s into the more pastoral Celtic folk-rock landscapes of Fisherman's Blues frustrated many longtime fans who thought that the group belonged in the same arenas as contemporaries like U2 or the Alarm, but it also brought in a new set of listeners who were looking for a young Fairport Convention or Steeleye Span. Taking its name from a passage in Scottish author, poet, and minister George MacDonald' fantasy novel Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women, Room to Roam extends the scope of the group's previous effort by integrating that album's Irish and Scottish folk elements further into the rock and pop nether regions. If anything, Room to Roam captures head (and soon to be only) Waterboy Mike Scott at his most unabashedly Beatlesque, stringing together whispery interludes, pub-style jam sessions (of the traditional folk variety), sound effects, and genre-defying forays into soul ("Something That Is Gone"), country ("How Long Will I Love You?"), traditional folk ("Raggle Taggle Gypsy"), and full-on rock & roll ("Life of Sundays") -- the latter cut even dissolves into a group singalong of the Fab Four classic "Yellow Submarine." Of the two albums, Room to Roam balances these two worlds the most effectively, and while the more focused and nuanced Fisherman's Blues is the superior record, it lacks Roam's amiable, schizophrenic, and pioneering spirit.
On their second album, A Pagan Place, the Waterboys turn Celtic folk-rock into a monumental fusion of Van Morrison's poetry, arena rock, and Phil Spector's monolithic wall of sound. Mike Scott's ideas are simply too grand to be executed properly, yet A Pagan Place has enough thrilling moments to make his embarrassing missteps forgivable.