Fisherman’s Blues

Fisherman's Blues - 84
We Will Not Be Lovers - 91
Strange Boat - 85
World Party - 79
Sweet Thing - 83
Jimmy Hickey's Waltz - 67
And A Bang On The Ear - 84
Has Anybody Here Seen Hank? - 75
When Will We Be Married? - 81
When Ye Go Away - 76
Dunford's Fancy - 65
The Stolen Child - 77
This Land Is Your Land - 62

Fisherman's Blues - 79

Ar the start it was super cool especially the hlackbirds cover but it kinda got repetitive and uninspired at the end

'Now your eyes are like tortures / Your presence is bliss / I never knew time / Could speed & zip like this.' I love the green cover & the gold lettering, & I love how seriously unserious they take themselves, & I love that they're of no apparent age at all, & I love them instrumentally as well as lyrically, but I love nothing more than the fact that they're so eager & yet so punctuated. The Waterboys' Fisherman's Blues is both untamed & placid, exhibiting a savage control of medium & attitude. True, it's a bit long, & not every song shines absolutely, but if you can pull off a proper cover of 'Sweet Thing,' you've got my attention. Representing a gorgeous transition between Liam Clancy & The War on Drugs, The Waterboys are a stunning reminder of life.

For how terrible the albums seem to be in the late 80's on here this isn't bad. Still not great though. Folk u2? Speaking of why are the Irish around this time obsessed with the American west?

Extra points for being relatively unique. Title track is a banger. Good stuff.

I hope you like violins and old fashioned time signatures

Riktigt bra skiva. Fina melodier och harmonier. This is the sea är min favorit av Waterboys men denna kommer strax efter. Titellåten, Strange boat och A Bang on the ear bäst.

I’m familiar with this album, or at least the concept of its existence. Good ol’ Celtic rock. One of my close friends is proudly Celtic, and I’m always down for some folksy rock vibes. Lots of 7-ish minute songs here, which is annoying, but I’ve heard longer songs, and longer albums. As I understand it, this was a pretty major pivot to folk stuff for this band, which is interesting. The title track is obviously incredible, and so is the second track, two of the better songs in that vein that I’ve heard, and there are a couple of other really nice tracks too, such as “And A Bang On The Ear,” a LONG, bittersweet ode to each of the singer’s past lovers, “When Will We Be Married?,” a cheeky yet actually really pretty and well-composed song, and “When Ye Go Away,” another really pretty song. Sadly though, there is soooooo much filler on this album it kind of hurts. “Strange Boat,” “World Party,” “Sweet Thing,” and “The Stolen Child” aren’t too bad by any means, but the time adds up, and it just isn’t needed. It doesn’t add enough to the album to have them there.

That being said, I think I’ll go back to this album plenty, what with its highs, and with its energy, and with its tunes. I like it a whole lot!!!
7.8/10
DOES IT BELONG ON THE LIST: YES
WHY: great example of a high-quality Celtic-influenced album.

When it started, I thought I was going to love it, but my enthusiasm dwindled as it went on. Maybe there's just a limit on how much I can enjoy this sort of thing - I only gave the Pogues three stars too.

Awww man, it really hooked me at the beginning and was headed for a 4-star, but lost me as it got deeper into trad Celtic territory. Fork found in kitchen and all, sure, but those first tracks of rock fusion really had me going! The second track in particular had some mind-blowing fiddle (?) solos that I would've loved to hear more of.

Standouts: Fisherman's Blues • We Will Not Be Lovers • World Party • Carolan's Welcome

I just listened to an entire genre get destroyed because someone thought Irish folk music wasn't modern and bland enough

Objectively, it's hard to find a flaw with this album. It sets out to do this sort of well produced, Folky sea shanty album and it succeeds at that. Reminds me most of the Cowboy Junkies, including a cover of a Velvet Underground song. I don't really click with it though. It had enough pleasant moments, but the entire album also brings a kind of boringness with it. It's a tad monotone and the production quality means it lacks a sort of rawness that I enjoy in Folk music.

First time hearing this one. First go and I wasn’t feeling it but a couple more listens and it’s grown on me. Under all the folk stuff I hear Dylan, Springsteen and even some Replacements. I’ll probably revisit this one.

Solid album with a unique sound.

I had never heard of these guys, but this was a great time! I’m generally a fan of folk rock and the traditional Scottish/Irish folk elements really worked well.

Didn’t mind this overall. At times leans too far into low grade Irish folk (When Will We Be Married), but at other times it soars, with great contributions from guitar, fiddle and vocals alike. It’s probably overly long and the cover of ‘This Land Is Your Land’ could have been left on the shelf, but worth a listen overall.

I listened to this album at 1 AM while high as kite and playing chess.

Fisherman's Blues was certainly a pretty solid album. I initially went into it thinking it was gonna be a country album and i was kinda right as it is folk rock which in a lot of ways is similar to country music. There were two types of songs on this album, the fast upbeat ones and the slow ones. I do lean a bit more toward the former style but i think that they both have their merit in quite a lot of the songs. I'm not usually the biggest fan of the folk violin that is used in quite a lot of these songs but they actually work decently well here. I wouldn't really say its a super great album but for what it does, it does pretty solidly.
Best Song: World Party
Worst Song: This Land Is Your Land

4.5
Only knew whole of the moon before this which is one of my faves. This was a really interesting album, a few weaker tracks like on most of the albums on this list though to be fair

Fand ich tatsächlich super chillig. Mehr Mitglieder in der Band als ich Freunde habe