The Waterboys: OUT OF ALL THIS BLUE - New Album due September 2017

Thanks for this. It does look like my only choice if I want both vinyl and cd is direct from the band.
Does anyone know what kind of download comes with the LP - MP3, FLAC??

 

I don't know for certain, but I think the LP comes with a download (probably lossy only, though). It doesn't include the CD, sadly.

EDIT: I didn't read thoroughly enough. It does indeed come with a download, although what format I don't know. The download-only album Kiss The Wind (available through the same link, outtakes from 1991 to 2006) is available in both MP3 and FLAC, so it's possible the LP will include a similar FLAC download. However, I'm only speculating - I would guess MP3 only.

 

It does say download however I fear you are correct - most likely lossy MP3

Has anyone done a comparison between vinyl and CD - is the vinyl worth it and better??

 

I would imagine so. I posted the DR readings for the CD a few posts back - it averages DR 8 but it still sounds pretty harsh. Mike really loves his compressors. I believe the CD mastering engineer is Jared Hirshland. He used Dick Beetham for virtually everything between 2005 and 2013, and they got progressively worse and worse. Modern Blues from 2015 was fantastic, shame that didn't carry over to this one.

 

Turns out the flat envelope marked "Do Not Bend" that came in the mail was not in fact the signed poster, but instead my college diploma. That's one of the funniest things I've ever been severely disappointed by.

 

Mike just had a funny series of posts on Twitter where he explained that reviewers keep mistaking "Nashville, Tennessee" as Mike singing about himself rather than Brother Paul, so he just posted this. I'm in stitches:

Mike Scott on Twitter

 

I don't know where I'd put this in my rankings, but every single song on here is a winner. Some are better than others, but this album is a 10/10 for sure. For reference, I consider Fisherman's Blues a 9/10.

I don't know if this will top This Is The Sea or even Modern Blues for me, but this album is an absolute masterpiece.

 

For me he has a hit a balance in sound and songs for this album that sets it above many previous albums.

I like the quality of the sound and...even the mastering. If you are going to take modern sonics and influences you need to treat them accordingly. I feel he did it appropriately but not to the detriment of the music. YMMV

 

I'm listening to this right now, and honestly my own feeling is "whatever happened to The Waterboys?".

The music is exceptionally well recorded, but they've become purveyors of middle-of-the-road muzak, imo. If I was Your Boyfriend?!? Do We Choose Who We Love?!? Yikes.

Preferred them when they were more rootsy. This is closer to The Eagles, imo. Lyrically it's pretty vapid too. Dunno, not happening for me.

 

I've yet to receive the CD so I can't give an accurate description of the sound. I found the iTunes downloads fairly harsh and bright, but nowhere near as bad as the '05-'13 Dick Beetham masters.

Frankly I'm not sure I'd call the instrumentals or even the drums hip-hop - to these ears, it's classic funk and R&B/soul stuff. Then again, that is the basis of what hip-hop tried to emulate...

(I tried to keep this concise but I ended up rambling, so if you don't feel like reading the delirious half-points of somebody who's been awake for 19 hours, skip to the second-to-last paragraph.)

Mike's covered enough styles that there's something for everyone throughout the years. This one and Modern Blues definitely take a pop approach with only a handful of tunes ("Long Strange Golden Road", "Connemara Fox") hearkening back to the more concrete rock and roll.

But frankly, given the state of the world - everyone at each other's throats over politics, news more useless than ever at presenting, y'know, news, a string of natural disasters that doesn't seem to be over yet, and the mass purge of beloved entertainers - being alive in 2016 and 2017 has been a fairly grim, dour experience, and a shiny pop package of love and happiness is just what the doctor ordered, I think. It is for me, at any rate.

You ain't gonna find a "This Is The Sea" or a "Red Army Blues" here - but we've already got "This Is The Sea" and we've already got "Red Army Blues". Mike's made it clear that he doesn't like to repeat himself artistically (except for the "Glastonbury Song" melody which shows up on nearly every album, "Yamaben" here), and that his grand statements don't really need to be restated. I certainly wouldn't complain if we got more tunes like "Beverly Penn" or "Too Close To Heaven", of course - but my point is, we don't need them because we've already got the originals.

But to answer your question of what ever happened to the Waterboys - they kept on doing what they do. Mike Scott defies categorization. Trying to pigeonhole or even generalize his music misses the point. He's the happy traveling troubador deluxe, donning his guises and inhabiting new styles in his artistic adventure. He hasn't covered as many styles as, say, the Clash or Elvis Costello, but he's had a very diverse catalog and none of it feels forced or insincere.

I realize this reads like a rabid, sycophantic fanatic gobbling up any malformed crap he might dump onto the world (and that's probably accurate), but I've listened to at least 85% of all his officially released music and I can only think of two songs that I'd even consider calling bad ("Medicine Jack" and "Careful With That Mellotron Eugene"). Certainly your experience may vary depending on whether or not you like the styles he's adopting, but even if you don't, I think you can probably acknowledge that he's not just trying on these styles like a costume but actually trying to inhabit them and mix them with his own style.

My point is that Mike and his music are constantly changing. Each new album has its own distinct style, even if some of them have obvious overlap - compare the dark, cold, and mechanical sound of The Waterboys to the hopeful, shimmering, and organic sound of A Pagan Place, and consider that half the songs from each originated from the same sessions in November of 1982. Consider that Bring 'Em All In and A Rock In The Weary Land were recorded within five years of one another. He's always changing and he can't be categorized; doing so completely misses the point.

That said, if you think the new album and its songs are a bunch of hokey crap, I'm not going to change that opinion.

 

Thanks for that. It's all down to the listener really, isn't it? I'm sure Mike is making the music Mike wants to, and that's all well and good. My comment was an initial reaction to hearing this new one, and it was mostly negative. Natch - I really didn't like it at all.

You're correct, of course - we have the classics. I just hope that great artists can continue to make great music - and this album certainly isn't that (for me). I'm sure he's having a good time. As a listener I found it all very polite and dare I say, boring. I found myself listening to the arrangements - which are quite good - and the inclusion of some nice female backing vocals, rather than tracking Mike and his lyrics. There's a lot of nice stuff there. However, as a package, as a song experience, I really can't see what he's trying to do (which is a rhetorical question more to myself than an actual question for Mike). I don't think a band/artist needs to be angsty to have an edge - they just need a sound. This is smoooooth.... too smooth for me.

I guess it's just not my thing.

 

Much of that describes how I feel about Book Of Lightning, although I still like that one well enough. I think funk and soul better suits Mike's love songs than the bland, slow, and predictable rock on that album. Those aren't necessarily insults, for the record - I just don't think that style of music spoke to his talents very well. And evidently you're experiencing the same with this one.

Curious what albums you've heard and what your favorites and least favorites are.

 

Just got the LP....so far, am concerned that something's not right. The vinyl seems smeared visually and 'If the answer is yeah' on side one sounds quite distorted.....gonna try a serious clean but if anyone else has the vinyl, bought from Amazon USA, can you comment on the sonics?

 

I know in previous posts I've mentioned that I never thought very highly of the debut, but after listening to it again, I could be very easily convinced that it's a perfect album from beginning to end. The production is rough as hell and most of these songs have been bettered live, but every single one just absolutely hit home for me. Don't know if I can put it on the same pedestal as This Is The Sea or A Pagan Place, it's definitely the weakest of the "big music" albums, but that's not a criticism by any means.

 

I have the Vinyl. Really enjoying the music - great songwriting - but the sound is poor relative to the previous release. Compressed and rough in places, almost like a demo tape. However I can listen through that and I am really enjoying it.

 

After reading his autobiography I thought he was an ******* but I liked his records anyway, then a few months ago I discovered his Twitter page and now he really disgusts me.

 

I think he's very outspoken about his opinions. If that's the qualifier for an *******, there's significantly less good people left in the world than I thought. Just my opinion.

 

Just took a look at it, and now I like him even more! Thanks for referencing it!

 

Cleaned the LP, sound problem on 'If the answer is yeah' remains, major distortion on second verse....after listening to all three slabs now I conclude this might be just what it is....an album with lousy sonics. I thought Modern Blues was quite dull sounding on vinyl but this is considerably worse. Musically, I can enjoy this album and am grateful Mike is still making music that matters, but sonically it's a major disappointment.

 

It could be the actual record. Vinyl is the new fad, so QC is out the window. I believe BMG is owned by Universal, whose MO might as well be "who the %$#@ cares, they'll buy it anyway". It was probably cheaply made in a bad plant to meet either demand or just to cut costs on a triple record set.

Mike Scott himself seems to favor highly compressed, limited, and EQ'd masterings, with only the occasional outlier (Universal Hall, Modern Blues) retaining dynamic range. I don't know the dynamic range and EQ quality of the master prepared for LP, or if it's even different from the CD master (if it does use the CD master, though, it's likely higher resolution). I will say that, per the YouTube videos, it's not nearly as bad as Mr. Yeats or Cloud Of Sound or Fisherman's Box, but I really hoped that since Modern Blues followed those, he had changed his mind about that mastering style. Shiny funk-influenced dance-style pop obviously demands a more up-front presentation than the laid-back bluesiness of the previous album, but I think it could have been done better.

But referring back to the new LP, I can't comment. I only ordered the deluxe CD and that hasn't even been delivered yet.

That really is a shame though that your LP is giving you issues. Is it too late to exchange it to see if it's a problem that plagues all copies?

 

I can't hear vocal distortion on 'if the answer is yeah' but the track is mixed with some heavily distorted synths by the sound of it and is heavily compressed. I needledropped it yesterday so I can listen on the move, I will try and work out how to post a snippet later today so you can compare. It is not a sonic masterpiece - some tracks are quite well recorded others are clearly not.

 

Now I know why I immediately gravitated to this - just read in the Amazon notes that a Spacebomb Studio player did all the horn and string arrangements.

Spacebomb - Matthew White's debut imho it's one of the all time greats of the last ten years

 

Mike is a big Matthew White fan and contacted Trey Pollard directly for the string arrangements. He did a great job!

 

halfway disc two now and indeed, it's a great album.

 

Sirius XM users can tune in at 2 PM EST to hear a re-run of the recent "Playin' Records with Mike Marrone" (forgive me if I misspelled his last name). I missed the original run, but I'm going to fix that now. From what I gather, the album will be played from start to finish while Mike (Scott) talks about each of the songs. It runs two hours - luckily I have no friends or responsibilities today (or ever), so I'll definitely enjoy it.

My 3CD still hasn't arrived yet, but I'd wager that half of the YouTube views on "New York I Love You" and "Yamaben" have been me. I'm also really loving "Santa Fe", "Didn't We Walk On Water", and "Love Walks In". This is one of those albums that reveals more and more every time I play it.