Out of all this blue

"The ambition and scope of these 23 songs is undeniably impressive, Scott still with a firm grip on the country and folk-minded tropes of his best back pages, augmented by (mostly) successful detours into the arenas of soul, funk, even hip-hop. From the sassy shuffle of If I Was Your Boyfriend to the sleazy garage groove of The Connemara Fox, from the bluesy drawl of Man, What A Woman to the fabulous faux Philly soul of Didn't We Walk On Water?, it's a no-holds-barred celebratory affair from a man overrun by muses.Looking back over The Waterboys' catalogue of the last 30-plus years, there have almost always been identifiable themes - musical or lyrical - underpinning the majority of releases. Out Of All This Blue isn't like that; this is Scott the melting pot throwing everything into the mix, with no restrictions or boundaries as to what pours out of his brightly shining brain. And that's very big of him".

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"If you're a longtime Waterboys fan who often wonders when Mike Scott is going to get funky -- well, your time has finally come. Stylistic shape-shifting has long been part of Scott's modus operandi, but with the Waterboys' ambitious 2017's double set Out of All This Blue, Scott and his collaborators have jumped headfirst into R&B and funk rhythms, with drum loops and hip-hop-influenced production dominating many of the tracks. This being a Waterboys album, there's an eclectic variety of sounds and genres here, including more familiar detours into Celtic, country, and folk-influenced tracks and a few numbers that focus on Japanese culture (part of the album was recorded in Tokyo). But the majority of the album finds Scott and company belatedly embracing dance rhythms, and he takes to the funk more comfortably than one might expect".

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