WATERBOYS This Is The Sea (Island)

It appears that the Waterboys are finding out that their music sounds bigger if they don�t constantly force their dramatic impulses on it. Mike Scott�s muse may still drink downstream from the likes of Dylan, Phil Spector, Van Morrison and Patti Smith, but his voice and vision are increasingly his own. Wonder and anger continue to arm wrestle in his romantic imagery but the band�s sound is tougher than before, even when they gotta go play borrow-thedrummer. In short, there�s improvement on several fronts here; this is a good�n, gang.M.D.