THE WATERBOYS

Book of Lightning

2007-08-27

It took a few listens to "Book of Lightning" before I realized what my problem was. I don't like the first two songs on this cd. If I start with "Nobody's baby" I love it. It's on "Nobody's baby" that Steve Wickham, fiddlemaster and part of the heart and soul of Waterboys appears. He's only on ½ the songs but it's the ones he's on that makes this cd shine for me. Mike Scott is in great form lyrically and musically but I can't hear it until track 3. Maybe the hard edge of the first 2 tracks will appeal to you but with songs like "You in the sky" and "Sustain" having lyrics like: "Blues are falling like showers of rain but I don't feel like crying, Death is abroad this day but I don't feel like dying, I learned how to sustain myself how to sustain myself in storms" I know I won't be playing them. This band has a wonderful history. Some 30 musicians have performed live as a Waterboy over the past 20+ years. It a story worth reading, check out Wikipedia or another source to get the whole of the moon. - Anne Lamont