Review: The Waterboys – An Appointment With Mr. Yeats

The Waterboys’ latest offering, An Appointment With Mr. Yeats has been in the pipeline for a very long time. Frontman, Mike Scott’s near obsession with Yeats has been well publicised, with sprinklings of the great Irish poet’s work to be found in Scott’s lyrics over the years. Having only studied a portion of Yeats’ work in my school years, I wasn’t sure what to expect from The Waterboys’ attempts to put their own melodic-rock spin on it.

Scott shows off his vast knowledge and understanding of Yeats’ back catalogue of work by choosing fourteen tracks that are an excellent balance of Yeat’s early romantic poetry and his latter, politically fuelled work. Standout tracks are Politics and Let The Earth Bear Witness, both of which seem almost perfectly written to suit the “rock’n’roll” treatment they’re receiving. Sweet Dancer is transformed into a gorgeous pop song backed by sumptuous vocals from Katie Kim.

Despite all the positives, there is one major let down which spoils the broth, so to say. September 1913 starts off fantastically but it is clear that Scott has put too much effort into his reconstruction of what is my favourite of Yeats’ poems. At over seven minutes long, the song soon pales into significance despite its promising beginning. Scott can be forgiven for this though, as it wasn’t down to a lack of effort that the song struggles.

An Appointment With Mr. Yeats is a tremendous tribute to one of Ireland’s greatest literary figures. It is obvious The Waterboys have put a lot of thought into the structuring of the melodies and their efforts have paid off. The Waterboys play Dublin’s Grand Canal Theatre on April 1st.