Thursday, November 24, 2011

The Waterboys "An Appointment With Mr. Yeats"




Ladies and gentlemen, I present another candidate for Album of the Year, 2012 for North America, 2011 for Europe and the few other reviewers in the States who couldn't wait for the domestic release.  "Appointment..." is a trip back to the Big Music of the Waterboys' 80's heyday.  If you own and love a copy of "Fisherman's Blues", "A Pagan Place" or "This Is The Sea", allow me to insist that you seek out and purchase however possible.

 

Mr. Yeats is W. B. Yeats, one of Ireland's greatest poets/writers.  I've seen him referred as the Irish Shakespeare.  The book and movie title "No Country For Old Men" is from a famous Yeats poem, so whether or not you're consciously aware of him, you have been exposed to his work.  Mike Scott adapted a Yeats poem for "Fisherman's Blues" and again on "Dream Harder", so this isn't unprecedented.  To do an entire record is a bit whacky, but to perform it live one year earlier than the release date is a sign of sheer passion or plain crazy.  But that's what they did, played twenty new songs to audiences in 2010 and released the record just a couple of months ago.  


Scott was raised in a literary household and was exposed to Yeats works by age 11.  The name was spoken in reverent tones around his house and he has said he hears music when he reads the works.  Obviously, it transferred to his own writing style, full of visions and images.  So this record is not a reach or an effort, it's a labour of love.  Since the lyrics are pieced together, they unfold slowly within the Irish undertones of the music, and I do mean undertones.  In no way, shape or form is this your stereotypical Irish music.  Oh no, my friends, this is a big ol' rockin' Irish record full of fiery fiddle, bangin' piano and drums.  The young girl on vocals was a discovery Scott made barhopping in Dublin one night, happening upon her performance with her band in a small pub.  She's a perfect fit for this album and a star of the future in her own right.  






The above tune should be the single, if there ever is one.  There's the bluesy bent of the first video above, the album's second track made Cat "Yusef" Stevens smile, and if I played the closing track for you without any hints, I'd venture many of you would guess mid-70's Pink Floyd.  That would suggest that Scott sounds like Roger Waters at times, which he does, and damn if he doesn't look like the other guy I wrote down as a RIYL, Bob Geldof.  
  
If you're a lit major or an English teacher, you owe yourself a treat.  That goes for the rest of you, too, if you want to hear something miles above the mindless crap that's on the radio.  

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