Editorial Reviews Music Review:
Music Review
Night Will Last Forever [Import]
Melts in Your Brain Not on Your Wrist: The Complete Recordings 1965 to 1967
Ives: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 4/Hymns
Amazon.com
Seven years and two Mike Scott solo albums since the Waterboys' previous album, Scott's decision to resuscitate the name of the band that made him famous feels like the decision of a man who is determined to stop running from something at which he excels. The second of his solo albums, 1998's Still Burning, was infused with the epic scope that had characterized the Waterboys at their best; A Rock in the Weary Land feels like a logical progression. There is little trace of the Irish-folk influence that occupied Scott for much of the early 1990s; this is what Scott calls "the big music"--surging rock ballads built from Zeppelinesque drums, backing choirs, strings, and what sounds like dozens of guitars. At its peaks, as on the title track and "We Are Jonah," this CD is vintage Waterboys, which is to say it's altogether exhilarating. --Andrew Mueller