Search - Waterboys :: Pagan Place

Fine re-issue that doesn't replace the original

Hans Bauman | Arlington, VA USA | 03/19/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This was the first Waterboys album I ever bought, and I remember laying that slab of vinyl on the Dual and being blown away by the full envelope of sound. This remastered release sounds infinitely better than the original CD release, even if you're not a total audiophile. The new additions are pretty good, but frankly I find that "bonus tracks" tend to distract from the song cycle that was the original album. (Can you imagine Abbey Road with bonus tracks? Seems to cheapen the original effort.)As for the two "restored" songs, however, I do take issue with Mike Scott on those. "All The Things She Gave Me" does appear to be a slightly longer, more satisfying version. However, "The Thrill Is Gone" replaces the original vocal track with a much more bluesy/meandering lead vocal which has a very different feel from the original sparse, haunting vocals on this song. I still have my original CD of this album for that reason: "The Thrill is Gone" here on this re-issue is not just an "unedited" version, as listed on the cover and in the liner notes. The original is probably my favorite Waterboys songs ever, so hearing it here with an overly self-indulgent vocal track bugs me. Perhaps you'll like it more, but it put me off.(On a side note, "The Live Adventures of the Waterboys" has the most amazing medly of "The Thrill Is Gone" with "The Healing Has Begun" which is really terrific, as is the "Because the Night/Pan Within" on that same collection. Wow. Highly recommended.)Overall, I'd give this re-issue a thumbs up for the excellent sound and most of the bonus tracks, which are fine songs,though it's unclear how they fit into the album concept. I just wish artists wouldn't use re-issues as a way of tinkering with classic works. (George Lucas should have kept his hands off the original Star Wars movies as well.)"

The signs of greater things to come!

Hans Bauman | 06/28/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A Pagan Place is light years ahead of the debut Waterboys, but not yet at the heights they would reach on This Is The Sea. The early sound of the band is formulating nicely, with some very strong songs here - the title track DEMANDS your full attention! The re-issue is essential for hard-core Waterboys fans who must own this for the full, unedited versions of The Thrill Is Gone & All The Things She Gave Me. The sound quality is much better on this disc than the original. The previously unreleased tracks generally are 'interesting - for collectors only'. However, great thanks go out to the people involved in making this re-issue - is there a "This Is The Sea" reissue coming?"

I have heard the Big Music.

Tom Johnson | California | 06/22/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"
And I'll never be the same. That's not only a line from one of the best songs ever written, but the definition of an entire sound. The self described Big Music sound of the Waterboys.



I first heard the Waterboys in 1985 at the Tower Records Store on Watt Ave. in my old hometown of Sacramento, CA. I had been shopping probably for the latest Leon Russell or Elton John album when out of the ceiling came the opening piano licks to "A Girl Called Johnny" from the Waterboys self-titled debut album. I gathered my jaw from the ground long enough to buy that album and race home with it. What a joyous sound! I had never heard anything like it in my life! It sounded a little like Lennon, you could hear Dylan and Bowie, a little U2, possibly even The Cars. All at the same time! I remember shaking as I drove back to the store to see if they had any other albums I could buy. And there were two more albums! "This is the Sea" and "A Pagan Place."



For the next six months all I listened to was The Waterboys. Like a man posseded by the truth I went about preaching their sound to anyone that would listen. I had found a new musical messiah. My favorite album of the three quickly became "A Pagan Place". Songs like...A Church Not Made With Hands, The Thrill is Gone, All the Thigs She Gave Me, Somebody Might Wave Back, Rags, The Big Music, Red Army Blues...Oh, Red Army Blues!



I fell in love to these songs, I dreamed with these songs, I planned my life with these songs. Even thinking about them here gives me the chills. I don't know where this music came from, but calling Mike Scott a musical genius would have been like calling Jesus an important historical figure. Surely the Waterboys were destined to become the kings of the music world.



But it was not to be. For the next two years as I awaited their next release I was daily at my Tower records like a demented disciple begging for scraps of bread: "Is it here yet? Is the new Waterboys album here yet? Finally one bright and sunny day having other things on my mind, much how the pot boils when you stop watching it, the record clerk presented me with a shiny new copy of "Fisherman's Blues". The light reflecting from the cellophane blinded me as I approached the altar. Is this it? I asked the smiling clerk.



I did 95 miles an hour on the way home. Very carefully I put the black disc on the turntable and...(cue the sound of the needle screeching off the vinyl)...oh my God! What is this? Fiddles? This isn't the Waterboys! Fiddles? There's no fiddles in the Waterboys. It says right on the album The Waterboys. It says this is the blues. "Fisherman's Blues".



You see, Mike Scott decided that instead of putting out another album of good music, he would experiment with the celtic sound. Lots and lots of fiddles. Imagine in the 80's if Bruce Springsteen had suddenly taken up the flute, or AC/DC decided that polka was more their thing.



I had come full circle as my jaw once again hit the ground. All those people I had preached to would have to be called. The Waterboys were not the Second Coming. They were merely a band who at one time briefly put together a sound unlike any other. Ocasionally they reveal glimpses of the promised land with albums like "Dream Harder" or "Rock in a Weary Land" and you might even enjoy "Room to Roam" at times, but seldom has there been a resurrection of the Big Music sound from those first three albums.



Note: The remastered "A Pagan Place" CD, with the bonus songs adds little to the album. Frankly you're better off with the original version."