Supporting their 2019 North American tour, the Waterboys have released an EP called Out Of All This Blue. In this four-song collection, not to be confused with the 2017 LP with the same title, we get two reads of the title song (the full recording of the tune and its demo) and two live tracks, all recorded on the Chris Evans Virgin Radio Breakfast Show.
The band’s founder and front man Mike Scott manages very personal songwriting, utilizing, as he always has, the full rich instrumentation his band has at its disposal. Proving this, the title track is an organ swirling, electric guitar flicking, tightly produced layering of a track with just the right sprinkling of horn interplay at its end. The demo that follows is a slower version with Scott singing while playing a warbly guitar.
“London Mick,” the first of those two live songs, is a loud rocking tribute to Mick Jones of the Clash, while arguably this band’s best-known tune, “The Whole Of The Moon” ends this EP. Piano, snare and Scott’s rather unusual voice (pretty much as strong as ever), and Steve Wickham’s electric fiddle take a big dramatic stab in this stripped down version of this famous stirring song.
I never could adequately describe the Waterboys’ music, and Out Of All This Blue doesn’t make that categorization any easier. Sometimes jaunty Irish folk, often straight-ahead rock and roll, lots of times the mix of the two — what this EP proves is that Mike Scott and his bandmates can still deliver.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
