Album Review: The Waterboys, Life, Death and Dennis Hopper

Quite how Waterboy-in-chief Mike Scott came up with the idea of a concept album about the life of the late hell-raising film star and counter-culture icon, Dennis Hopper, is anyone’s guess. It’s a crazy notion and one that shouldn’t work, yet somehow does.

A sprawling 25-track collection that starts in Hopper’s youth and ends the day after his death, the album sees Scott calling on a host of big name guests to help flesh out the songs. So we have Bruce Springsteen adding some spoken word to the driving ‘Ten Years Gone’; Steve Earle’s world-weary country croon on ‘Kansas’; and Fiona Apple lending her talented tonsils to the wonderful, Waits-ian piano symphony ‘Letter From An Unknown Girlfriend’.

First they gave us the Big Music, then came the Celtic raggle-taggle years, and now later-period Waterboys – a wonderfully fluid musical chameleon that incorporates thrusting old school R&B (‘Live In The Moment, Baby’), Californian stoner rock (‘The Tourist’), and ‘60s-inspired bubblegum pop a la Burt Bacharach (‘Andy (A Guy Like You)’.

Not to mention a string-drenched Nashville waltz (‘Riding Down To Mardi Gras’), the madcap guitar assault of ‘Frank (Let’s Fuck)’, and the slow and soulful groove of ‘I Don’t Know How I Made It’.

There are also snippets of fictionalised news reports, movie ads, cinematic confessions and casual conversations, on the craziest, most eclectic and downright fun album you’re likely to set ears on all year.

9/10

Out now