For the 1997 Irish film, see This Is the Sea (film).
1985 studio album by the Waterboys
This Is the Sea
Cover art by Lynn Goldsmith
Studio album by
the Waterboys
Released
16 September 1985[1]
Recorded
February – August 1985
Studio
Park Gates in Hastings
Livingstone, Seaview, the Chocolate Factory, RG Jones, Townhouse, and Good Earth in London
Genre
Alternative rock
post-punk
art rock
folk rock
Length
42:08
Label
Ensign
Island
Chrysalis
Producer
Mike Scott
John Brand
Mick Glossop
Karl Wallinger
The Waterboys chronology
A Pagan Place (1984)
This Is the Sea (1985)
Fisherman's Blues (1988)
This Is the Sea is the third studio album by the Waterboys, released on 16 September 1985 by Ensign Records. The last of their "Big Music" albums, it is considered by critics to be the finest album of the Waterboys' early rock-oriented sound,[2] described as "epic" and "a defining moment".[3] It peaked at number 37 in the UK Albums Chart. Steve Wickham makes his Waterboys recording debut playing violin on "The Pan Within" and subsequently joined the band. This Is the Sea is the last Waterboys album with contributions from Karl Wallinger, who left the group to form his own band, World Party.
Mike Scott, the album's principal songwriter and leader of the Waterboys, describes This Is the Sea as "the record on which I achieved all my youthful musical ambitions",[4] "the final, fully realised expression of the early Waterboys sound", influenced by The Velvet Underground, Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, and Steve Reich.[5] Regarding the end of the group's sound being tied to "The Big Music" after completing the album, Scott stated, "I finished with that kind of music to achieve whatever it was I was trying to achieve with that album. That overdubbed big sounding music, I didn't need to do it anymore."[6]
The album was recorded between March and July 1985, and released that October. A remastered and expanded version was released in 2004. This Is the Sea contains the best-selling Waterboys single, "The Whole of the Moon". The album cover is a photograph taken by Lynn Goldsmith.
^Smith, Robin (14 September 1985). "News: Waterboys at sea". Record Mirror. p. 7.
^"Allmusic review". Retrieved 22 October 2005.
^Fitzsimmons, Mick. "Must Have Waterboys". BBC: Critical List. Archived from the original on 19 May 2006. Retrieved 22 October 2005.
^"Mike Scott, March 2003". Archived from the original on 27 April 2006. Retrieved 5 May 2006.
^Scott, Mike (2004). "Recording Notes". This Is the Sea. EMI. p. 5.
^"Strange Boat: Mike Scott & The Waterboys (2007) by Ian Abrahams p. 82
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