The Waterboys – Fisherman’s Blues

I wrote about perfect albums recently. This is another one.

The Waterboys have had a long and admirable career, and they’re still at it. They’ve produced incredible music over the years. But never before this album, and not yet since after, have they gotten it all the way right, all together. But that’s ok. They did it here.

Change in folk music is tough. How do you reconcile reverence with innovation? Tradition with experimentation? How does one write with relevance to the now, from a place of respect for the then, with an eye to the future?

Ask The Waterboys. They know. They did it.

From the opening track’s perfection—and mark my words, “Fisherman’s Blues” is a perfect song—to the glorious closing rendering of “The Stolen Child,” this album simply doesn’t miss a beat.

Beauty means many different things to many different listeners, but I think this album achieves a kind of beauty I think we can all agree on.

Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand.
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.