{"id":993,"date":"2020-12-18T17:26:02","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T17:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.z360.com\/blog\/?p=993"},"modified":"2020-12-19T14:44:02","modified_gmt":"2020-12-19T14:44:02","slug":"track-of-the-year-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/?p=993","title":{"rendered":"Track of the Year 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>My Wanderings In The Weary Land by The Waterboys<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Good-Luck-Seeker.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-994\" alt=\"Good Luck, Seeker\" src=\"https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Good-Luck-Seeker.jpg\" width=\"1080\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Good-Luck-Seeker.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Good-Luck-Seeker-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Good-Luck-Seeker-500x500.jpg 500w, https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Good-Luck-Seeker-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">This is an unlikely choice, and the idea that the pseudo Irish folk band The Waterboys would be a 2020 favourite was derided, even laughed at, by several of my contemporaries. Nevertheless Mike Scott and his cronies have metamorphosed into a soul rock band, with electronic backing. They are both hilarious and sincere, in a way that maybe Morrissey used to be.<\/p>\n<p>The actual track is a rock stomper that you can actually dance to. The music is credited to Jim Keltner, the great American session drummer, although whether he actually plays is unknown, it does sound a bit processed. The other music credit is to Anthony Thistlethwaite, a long time accompanist of The Waterboys, presumably he plays the violin. Still it is the lyrics and singing of Mike Scott which animates this bulldozing epic, like a whole life in song. The coda is a proper rock guitar freakout, the like of which is rarely heard these days, but advances in a most satisfying manner after the emotions of the verses.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/EaJb9OlWsAEjqEy.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-995\" alt=\"EaJb9OlWsAEjqEy\" src=\"https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/EaJb9OlWsAEjqEy.jpeg\" width=\"1063\" height=\"1063\" srcset=\"https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/EaJb9OlWsAEjqEy.jpeg 1063w, https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/EaJb9OlWsAEjqEy-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/EaJb9OlWsAEjqEy-500x500.jpeg 500w, https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/EaJb9OlWsAEjqEy-300x300.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1063px) 100vw, 1063px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Yes there is a whole life in this song, ecstatic, searching and moving. The moment when he exclaims \u201cAnd I Ran\u201d makes you want to run alongside, imagining your own experiences through the vagaries of existence. It resolves, after many adventures, at \u201clove\u2019s fortress\u201d, truly a A Long Days Journey Into Night. Yet he manages to emerge into the \u201csmall damp dawn\u201d. Such a joy to hear the height of unbridled emotion, instead of some tinkly, mousy, half-formed musings so common these days. His optimism is infectious, he will keep running and never become \u201cone of them!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This song is track 9 or track 2 side 2 of the album Good Luck, Seeker. The album itself is a slightly mixed bag, starting with the Van Morrison inspired The Soul Singer. It traverses through some electro-folk and then the psychedelic Dennis Hopper and Freak Street. However it is side 2, track 8 onwards, which comprises a suite of spiritual songs taking us on a true journey. Some are delivered as poetry rather than sung, which appears to have upset some fans. Yet I find the balance between the rock bombast and dreamy romanticism works perfectly, the songs reflecting off each other, building a plangent vista. We slowly move into a spiritual realm, arriving bizarrely at The Society of The Inner Light at Steeles Road in London. The album finishes with the calming Land of Sunset, but before that there is a kind of reprise of Weary Land. The short Everchanging boldly proclaims \u201ca new vista of fresh probabilities\u201d. Still moving indeed, and all highly energising.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Good-Luck-Seeker-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-996\" alt=\"Good Luck, Seeker 1\" src=\"https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Good-Luck-Seeker-1.jpg\" width=\"1400\" height=\"1050\" srcset=\"https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Good-Luck-Seeker-1.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Good-Luck-Seeker-1-150x112.jpg 150w, https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Good-Luck-Seeker-1-500x375.jpg 500w, https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Good-Luck-Seeker-1-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=WJ8edDThJ3A\" target=\"_blank\">My Wanderings In The Weary Land &#8211; the official audio on You Tube<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Good-Luck-Seeker.jpg\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>\u03a9<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My Wanderings In The Weary Land by The Waterboys This is an unlikely choice, and the idea that the pseudo Irish folk band The Waterboys would be a 2020 favourite was derided, even laughed at, by several of my contemporaries. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/?p=993\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,11],"tags":[20,14],"class_list":["post-993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-poetry","tag-music-2","tag-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=993"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":999,"href":"https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993\/revisions\/999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/z360.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}