Three Seconds of Dead Air

Song of the Day (12/13/09) December 13, 2009

In the mid-80′s, The Waterboys played music that was so stirring and anthemic that they temporarily gave U2 a run for their money.  Frontman and principal songwriter Mike Scott made it his mission to play something he called “The Big Music”: soaring, majestic tunes that didn’t stint on ambition.  The band has gone through several permutations since then, taking in rustic Gaelic tunes and a vaguely creepy born-again vibe on later albums.  Scott is the only constant in the band’s history, and while his recent music doesn’t pack quite the punch as his earlier songs, the band had a pretty stellar three-album run (This Is the Sea; Fisherman’s Blues; Room to Roam) that I still return to frequently.  To make up for the recent lack of Songs of the Day (and I realize if the frequency of these particular posts continues to slow, I’ll have to give them another name), here are two of the standout songs from their 1985 album, This Is the Sea. The first is called “The Whole of the Moon”; the second is the album’s title track.  Both are amazing.