Fisherman’s Blues

Boring.

Today's album is a Celtic rock/folk album, which is right in my wheelhouse! The Waterboys are from the UK. This is their fourth studio album, and the first of their albums to feature Celtic folk. Prior to this album, they were just a rock band. With this album, they introduced the Celtic influences, which I love!

The rock side of this band reminds me of the Canadian band Headstones, while the Celtic side reminds me of Irish Rovers. Just like you would hear guitar solos in traditional rock music, you hear fiddle/mandolin solos on this record, which is awesome!

This Land Is Your Land is a snippet of a Woody Guthrie song, Has Anybody Here Seen Hank is a tribute to Hank Williams, The Stolen Child is a William Butler Yeats poem that the band put to music, and Sweet Thing is a cover of a Van Morrison song (the band breaks into a rendition of The Beatles song Blackbird right in the middle). Fisherman's Blues was used in the TV Series Lights Out, as well as movies: Good Will Hunting, and Waking Ned Devine.

They get super experimental with the fiddle on this record, pushing it to its absolute limit to extract sounds out of it that were never heard before. The 7-9 minute songs on this record are really special, because that's where the band is just dabbling with their instruments, and some really cool moments occur (they feel like a jam band during these songs).

The Spotify link for this album connected me with the Collectors Edition of this record, which is 1 hour, 42 minutes, and I listened to every second! There are some really fantastic songs in this extended version of the album, like: Rattle My Bones and Shiver My Soul, And Meet Me At The Station.

Overall, this was an amazing album today, from a band I'd never heard before. I will definately revisit this album, along with the rest of their discography. Albums like this is why I love this generator!

Favourite songs: Meet Me At The Station, Fisherman's Blues, Dunford's Fancy, Carolan's Welcome, When Will We Be Married, Rattle My Bones and Shiver My Soul, And A Bang On The Ear, Jimmy Hickey's Waltz, We Will Not Be Lovers, Killing My Heart, World Party, You In The Sky, Sweet Thing, Has Anybody Here Seen Hank?, Strange Boat, Let Me Feel Holy Again, When Ye Go Away, The Stolen Child

Least favourite songs: if forced to pick, Soon As I Get Home

5/5

The 80s buttfucks Celtic music while Van Morrison and the Beatles hug one another and weep in shame.

Started out decent but lost my interest throughout the listen. In the end I felt it was just average. 2/5

never even heard of the band - liked it a lot

Sweet Thing has an extended hommage to Blackbird. An okay folk album, not really my scene but totally fine.

This version of the album (on Spotify) was far too long. I couldn't figure out what the original track listing was; the book says 12, Wikipedia says 13 - which would be fine, but still felt longer than it needed to be.

This album sounded like it belonged more in the late 70s rather than a decade later. Maybe it's a response for The Waterboys wanting to escape the city and get back to simpler times, a rural retreat - still at times you can hear the urban chaos trying to resurface.

Lo tengo en vinilo, como disco me parece el mejor de los Waterboys (aunque el anterior tiene su mejor canción). y creo que este si es de los que merece la pena. Me gustan casi todas las canciones desde "Fisherman's Blues", "We Will Not Be Lovers", "World Party", "Sweet Thing", "And a Bang on the Ear", "When Will We Be Married?", "The Stolen Child"y "This Land Is Your Land". Creo que este disco sirve para entender la popularización de la música irlandesa tradicional como algo Pop que se puede escuchar y disfrutar en cualquier parte del mundo.

Better than average, love the folk infuence

If the Waterboys were playing a live show in a pub and I was walking by, I'd pay the cover, grab a pint and take in the ambience. A Celtic-rock jam band. Seems a bit obscure to me, but it's a fine thing to have on in the background.

Aika jees tunnelmointia. Toivoisin että olis menny vielä enemmän kansanmusasuuntaan, nyt jää liian rock-tyylin johdosta vähän kädenlämpöiseksi. On tässä hyviäkin biisejä toki.

Välihuomiona monissa näissä levyissä harmittaa, että Spotifyssa on lähinnä näitä remastered-deluxe-kokoelmia. Tässäkin levyllä 2 on vähemmän kiinnostavia biisejä ja uudelleenlämmittelyjä.

More listenable than The Pogues but still doesn't really work for me.

Went into this with low expectations but really enjoyed it, some excellent songwriting