The Waterboys - This Is the Sea (2 cd´s)

Record: 1985
Release date: 2004 (Remastered)
Style: Alternative Pop/Celtic/Rock
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Tercer disco de los Waterboys. Despues del magnifico "A pagan place", editaron este poderoso disco lleno de influencias celtas. Violines, viento y finas guitarras hacen que la musica de Scott te eleve, desde "Whole of the Moon" hasta "This is the sea", cielo y mar, filosofia y sentimientos aunados en unas maravillosas melodias.

AMG:
Expanding the epic, multi-layered sound of A Pagan Place, This Is the Sea is a more ambitious yet a more successful record, since it finds Mike Scott at his melodic peak. Consequently, the album has enough strong, accessible moments to make his indulgences forgivable. [The album was expanded in 2004 to include an entire second disc of material.]

Released in October 1985, This Is the Sea was the first Waterboys album to fully capture the "big music" that Mike Scott had been cultivating on the band's two previous recordings. Like A Pagan Place, the shimmering 12-string guitars, rolling piano, and arena-style horn sections serve as the backdrop for Scott's political, spiritual, and inspirational lyrics, but this time around the results are downright mythical. Inspired by the Velvet Underground's mastery of the two-chord song, as well as the writings of C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald, and Dion Fortune, the nine tracks on This Is the Sea are veritable wolf-howls of self-discovery. Scott's challenge to the listener on the spirited opener "Don't Bang the Drum" -- "Well here we are in a special place/What are you gonna do here" -- serves as the blueprint for the entire work, demanding that the search for "The Whole of the Moon" and "The Pan Within" be taken together. Karl Wallinger, who had joined the group halfway through A Pagan Place, became a one-man orchestra on these sessions, providing everything from harmonium to celeste, ably fleshing out Scott's vision. The overall effect is stunning, especially on the larger-than-life title track. "This Is the Sea" is an anthem that works on almost every level; it's a stadium-sized rocker (without any drums), a life-affirming sermon (without being preachy), and, like the rest of the album, an over the top '80s spectacle (without being indulgent). EMI's 2004 reissue features the original remastered album as well as a 14-track bonus disc. This Is the Sea was culled from an arsenal of nearly 40 songs, and unlike 2002's supplemental Fisherman's Blues, Pt. 2 -- on which many of these tunes wrongfully landed -- the omitted cuts are indicative of the record for which they were intended. A longer rendition of "Spirit" -- originally released on the Whole of the Moon 12" -- reaches new heights with its elongated refrain of "high on the wine of life," and the newly uncovered "full-length" version of "Medicine Bow" incorporates a brutal two-and-a-half-minute piano freakout that owes more to David Bowie's Aladdin Sane than it does Van Morrison's Astral Weeks. There's a reverence for the band's anthemic contemporaries that's oddly charming -- "Beverly Penn" and "Sleek White Schooner" sound like Anglo-Springsteen tunes with Anthony Thistlethwaite filling in for Clarence Clemens -- and a previously undisclosed flair for the avant on the instrumentals "High Far Soon" and "Even the Trees Are Dancing" -- the latter reappeared with lyrics on 2003's Universal Hall as "Always Dancing, Never Getting Tired" -- shows a band in its creative prime. The liner notes are fascinating as well, with Scott pointing out the influences, contributions, and exhaustive recording techniques in amiable detail, opening the door to the group's most defining period like a peat fire on a wet winter night. The Waterboys have always been attributed to Scott as a pseudonym, and rightly so, but for a brief moment in the mid-'80s they were a union of musicians and artists at war with apathy, and This Is the Sea was their manifesto.

Amazon:
This was a great album released in 1985. It is now even better. It is the only Waterboys ablum I have ever owned. (and I have heard them all) For some reason this album has an alluring quality to it that beckons the listener to absorb it completely. I was thrilled when it was finally given the treatment it deserved. The remaster is glorious. There are instruments that I never heard on the orginial CD pressing. The packaging is great too. Extensive liner notes make this a great read about how the album was put together. The bonus CD mirrors the quality of the cuts that made the album. The full version of "Spirit" is fantastic and should have been the cut on the actual album. There are a few insrumentals on the bonus CD that could have easily replaced "Be my enemy" which made the cut and should have been omitted in favor of any of the gems on the bside bonus CD. I was very impressed with the overall value and package of this landmark 1985 recording. Buy it...you won't be sorry.

Disc: 1
1. Don't Bang The Drum
2. The Whole Of The Moon
3. Spirit
4. The Pan Within
5. Medicine Bow
6. Old England
7. Be My Enemy
8. Trumpets
9. This Is The Sea

Disc: 2
1. Beverly Penn
2. Sleek White Schooner
3. Medicine Bow (Full Length)
4. Medicine Jack
5. High Far Soon
6. Even The Trees Are Dancing
7. Towers Open Fire
8. This Is The Sea (Live)
9. Then You Hold Me
10. Spirit (Full Length)
11. Miracle
12. I Am Not Here
13. Sweet Thing
14. The Waves

This is the Sea

Éstas cosas que guardas,
mejor las tirabas.
Te darás la vuelta
en tu deprimente vida
Una vez estuvista atado,
y ahora eres libre.
Una vez estuviste atado.
Bien, ahora eres libre.
Aquello era el río.
¡Ésto es el mar!

Ahora, si te sientes cansado.
Si has estado sólo demasiado tiempo,
quizá estuviste sufriendo
por culpa de unos cuantos planes
que te salieron mal.
Y tratas de recordar
cuan buena solía ser tu vida,
corriendo y golpeando tu tambor.
Como en 1973.
Bueno, aquello era el río.
¡Ésto es el mar!
¡Uau!

Ahora dices que tienes dudas.
Que tienes un dolor.
Dices que no te queda nada en qué creer.
Nada a lo que agarrarte.
Nada en qué confiar.
Tan sólo te quedan cadenas.
Estás dándole vueltas a tu conciencia.
Peinando tus recuerdos.
Pero eso, es un río.
¡Ésto es el mar! ¡Sí!

Ahora te veo vacilar
cuando intentas decidirte.
Tienes una guerra en tu cabeza.
Y te está partiendo en dos por dentro.
Tratas de encontrar sentido
a algo que no puedes ver.
Intentando buscarle el sentido ahora.
Y sabes que hubo un tiempo en que tuviste la llave.
Pero eso era un río.
¡Y ésto es el mar!
Si si si si si!

Ahora oigo un tren.
Viene hacia aquí por la vía.
Es tuyo, si te das prisa.
Todavía tienes tiempo suficiente.
Y no necesitas un ticket.
No necesitas pagar el pase.
No, no necesitas ticket.
No pagues el pase.
Porque éso era el río.
¡Y ésto es el mar!

¡Contempla el mar!

This is the sea