THE WATERBOYS
A Rock In The Weary Land
BMG
· First Waterboys album in eight years.
An uneasiness creeps upon me when I open the new CD to find a two-page prose poem, or dream monologue, that begins, in bolded uppercase, "LIKE A PIONEER...." Thankfully, this story ends with Mike Scott, "finally to emerge from the winter of my journey into the grey light of a small damp dawn and so set forth this: the testament of my wanderings in the Weary Land."
Scott, the singer-songwriter behind The Waterboys, is a troubadour of the old school. Testament is a good word, for his songs are as often addressed to a god, pagan or otherwise, as to any girl. Fans looking for a sequel to the band’s 1989 classic, Fisherman’s Blues, will be sorely disappointed (although an album of outtakes is in the works). A Rock In The Weary Land is a generally loud, lyrically despondent walk through the wilderness of mid-life. One hopes that Scott comes through with his spirit intact.
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