This is the Sea [Clear Vinyl]

This Is the Sea stands as the defining statement of the Waterboys’ early era, the moment where their so-called Big Music reaches full, resounding clarity. Released on 16 September 1985 by Ensign Records, the album captures Mike Scott’s vision at its most expansive and assured, marrying emotional intensity with scale, sweep and conviction. It remains the final and most fully realised expression of the band’s early rock-oriented sound.

Recorded between March and July 1985, the album draws together months of writing, refinement and ambition. Scott has described it as the record on which he achieved all his youthful musical aims, and that sense of culmination runs through every track. The nine songs selected from a much larger body of work feel deliberate and inevitable, bound together by a shared spiritual and emotional current. Influences ranging from The Velvet Underground to Astral Weeks and minimalist composition feed into a sound that feels unified rather than referential.

The album also marks key transitions within the band. Steve Wickham makes his recording debut on violin on “The Pan Within”, adding a new melodic dimension that would shape the Waterboys’ future direction, while This Is the Sea is the final album to feature Karl Wallinger, whose studio presence and layered arrangements play a vital role in the album’s richness. Scott later noted that Wallinger’s contributions were integral to the album becoming what it is.

At its centre is “The Whole of the Moon”, the band’s most successful and enduring single. Its soaring melody, vivid contrasts and trumpet-driven arrangement crystallise the album’s themes of vision, inspiration and transformation. Elsewhere, songs explore spirituality, love, politics and renewal, with the title track closing the album on a note of affirmation, using the river and the sea as symbols of change and forward motion.

Critics recognised the album’s ambition and vitality on release, describing it as epic, panoramic and alive with ideas. It peaked at number 37 on the UK Albums Chart and has only grown in stature since, frequently cited as the high-water mark of the Waterboys’ early work. Remastered editions and the extensive 1985 box set released in 2024 have further illuminated the depth and care behind its creation.

This Is the Sea endures because it feels both personal and elemental. It is an album of belief, momentum and release, one that captures an artist and a band committing fully to the sound they were driven to make, and trusting it to carry them forward.