Bring 'em All In - Mike Scott > Reviews > A solo journey to the Pan within

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Sublime
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Good
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	a great set of solo songs from the Waterboys front man
Disadvantages:	none

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Mike Scott has followed a path that has moved between building the most epic of musical creations at one extreme and the simplest soundscapes at the other. All the time in this wide range of styles he has maintained a spiritual quality and intelligence within his work that is not often seen in modern music. The Early eighties saw Mike Scott and band member John Caldwell moving their Edinburgh based Another Pretty Face, to London. Upon its demise Mike stayed in London to work on some demo tracks of his own. These tracks were to surface as the basis of the first album in Scotts new band, The Waterboys. Early albums contained some epic stadium type songs that although played on a big scale contained musical subtleties and clever penmanship that set them apart from their contemporaries. The pinnacle of their achievements in purely commercial terms was a tour with U2 and Simple Minds and shifting large volumes of their third album "This is the Sea" which contained their best known hit "Whole of the Moon" But by now Mike Scott was not thinking in commercial terms, in fact quite the opposite. From here on Scotts writing became more introspective and smaller, the days of the "Big Music" as he called it had passed and the music became more personal.

By the early nineties Scott had abandoned attempts to work in a band format having become dissatisfied with the ever-shifting line ups and had become a live in guest at the Findhorn spiritual community centre in Scotland. It was at this location that "Bring 'Em All in" was written and conceived and was recorded in a tiny basement studio at a nearby community theatre, just the artist and an engineer, and the peace and calm of this quieter life clearly shines through in his work. The quest for the "Big Music" of his younger days had by now been replaced by the quest for some sort of inner peace.

The soft acoustic strumming gently leads us into Scott's very personal world, a song of universal love sung with total conviction and no hint of pretension. Scotts art as a writer is to tackle subjects that lesser artists would be too heavy handed in their writing, too cliché, too obvious, too cheesy. In a time that is undergoing a revival of male singer songwriters such as David Gray, Damien Rice and most recently James Blunt, this album from a decade previously makes the connecting between the newcomers and the likes of James Taylor and the like. In is hard for one man in a studio playing mainly guitar to accompany his words to produce a variance in his music from one song to the next but this is exactly what Scott manages to do. Here we are treated to the art of "less is more" and "Iona" is a great example of the art. A barely audible acoustic guitar picks out a distant rhythm behind a set of moving and beautiful descriptive words and the only change in dynamic is achieved through a gradually rising distorted electric guitar that provides an otherworldly wash of sound in the background.

Although the Waterboys were always regarded as an Irish band, due to being based there, Scott is a refugee from the land that shares his name and he pays homage to his old hometown in "Edinburgh Castle" a straightforward acoustic busker style ballad. Dublin gets it own recognition in "City Full of Ghosts", a personal reflection of the musical exploits of times gone by with specific references to the Waterboys.

Dublin is a city full of humour
Dublin is a city full of wit
Dublin is a city full of buskers
playing old Waterboys hits
but what it means to me the most -
Dublin is a city full of ghosts

The ghost of a fiddle
the ghost of a sax
the ghost of a sound that ain't never coming back
the ghost of a friendship, curdled and sour
the ghost of a time when I still had the power

There is a Bob Dylan feel to some of the numbers, especially obvious when Scott adds the harmonica to the proceedings, though in my opinion here we are treated to better songs and a much better voice. "What Do You Want Me To Do?" is the most obvious of these and highlights also Scotts spiritual quest, which has always been present in his songs, but here, is expressed in no uncertain terms. The last track on the album "Building The City of Light" for me is the highlight of the album. It could have appeared on the Waterboys "This Is The Sea" album and contains that unbridled power that they managed to create through many layers of acoustic instruments and reminds you what Scott is capable of, even when he is working without a backing band.

Although there are big moments on the album, the aforementioned "Building The City of Light" and "I know She's In The Building" but mainly the songs are simpler affairs though they do move between upbeat jaunts and straighter narratives to provide variation. "Bring 'Em All In" exposes the heart of the Waterboys, shows you the source of their song writing, and even in spite of having no band to support, or possibly because of, Scotts solo songs are a worthy addition to anyone's collection.