Sarfraz Manzoor

Inspired by the five stars that the Guardian gave to the new album from the Waterboys I downloaded the new single ‘Everyone takes a tumble’ and it is currently playing on a loop. There are so many bands who emerged from the eighties who are now trading on nostalgia and past glories or hoping to be rediscovered throught Faustian pacts with reality television. The Waterboys might have started making music during the eighties but their sound is not imprisoned in that decade; most people have heard ‘The Whole of the Moon’ but songs like ‘Gala’, ‘It should have been you’, ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ and ‘The Return of Pan’ do not really belong to any time and that is probably why their music has not dated. The other reason is that Mike Scott is a fantastic songwriter and musician; it might not be fashionable to sing with such heart and fire and spirit and passion but Scott has remained true to himself and listening to his song it is wonderful to be able to say in all honesty it is as good as anything he has recorded.